Heirs to a Prophesy
by Tigris Euphrates
Summary: Lacy Myers was a human girl with a life that was finally coming together after years of homelessness. That was all destroyed by an evil society with ideas of making a superior race of gargoyles, transforming Lacy Myers into the gargoyle mage-in-training,
1. Birth of the Hatchling

**_Heirs to a Prophesy_**

By Tigris Euphrates (tigris@sbcglobal.net)

Chapter One: Birth of the Hatchling February, 2004 

            On the street children rarely ever have names as ordinary people use them - these kids have code names, or handles, and their birth names are a secret kept strictly to them. Some are on welfare; others make a living from light crime, which comes so easily to a person who just wants something to eat. She began life as Lacy Myers, the child of West Hollywood residents Wesley and Helena Myers. Her father spent a year in the marriage playing his favorite game with his only daughter; hide-the-sausage. The courts took her away and she spent the next few years being bounced from the house of one relative to another. Each place found the moody young girl fighting with her guardians, and so Lacy became Lana - the street girl who slept under overpasses and walking the streets of the angel town whenever she had run away from her guardians at the time.

            When she was twelve-almost-thirteen, she was flown to Manhattan to live with an Aunt. This particular aunt was more concerned with which man she had with the bigger prick at the time, once again leaving the street girl from the city of angels either locked in a closet listening to her aunt's lusting screams, or else walking the streets of the Big Apple. She found that she fit right in - the streets are the same no matter where you go - the language of hunger, drugs, sex, and violence is universal. Lana was literally the girl who went uncounted in the millennia census - who went unnoticed by the doers of great things in the world.

            Lana had more than her fair share of unsavory encounters with the pricks on the street. It was not uncommon to for her to find herself servicing policemen to avoid spending a night in jail with the dykes. A plain and ordinary girl of fifteen-almost-sixteen, she was subject to random strip searches and anything else the police could think of in their supposed search for drugs.

            After several long months of "working the system", she finally managed to get herself off of the streets and into a small, dirty, run down house in a complex that was built before the invention of the automobile. The stone gargoyles that decorated it's roof seemed to loom over it's in habitants like the prevailing sense of fear that the people below always felt. She had food stamps to see that she ate properly, a little money to buy clothes with, and some subway tokens to get around town with. Despite all that, she still spent some time catching up with her street friends. She went down the park one night to meet her friend Jeremy Noe. He was a nice boy about her age - and gay too, never willing to lay a finger on a woman, especially Lana. For some reason Lana noticed a lot of gay people on the streets in some parts of town and tried to spend a lot of time there, but the pricks were everywhere and unavoidable - always hunting down a piece of ass as carrion hunts down a dead carcass.

            Jeremy was dressed in drag when she met him. She giggled a little at his attire, as Jeremy pirouetted for her.  His high-heeled shoes made him seem to tower over the small girl. "How'm I doin', Lana?" he inquired.

            "Shitty." she laughed. "Your boobs are way too big, and your voice sounds like a sailor. It's okay, though."

            Jeremy gave her a look, but ignored her giggling. "Got any weed?"

            "Nope, though I wouldn't mind getting stoned right now."

            Jeremy lit up an ordinary hand rolled cigarette, took a few drags off of it, and regarded the girl sitting on the other side of the park bench. "How'd things go at the GA office?"

            "Okay, I have a place. It's a shitty dump, but it's warm." she replied.

            He nodded approvingly. "Good thing. Are you going to get into school?"

            "They're going to start me at a community college level so I can take my GED test."

            "That's great! Damn - yer a bright kid - I never graduated from High School until I was eighteen like all the normie kids. It's such a fucking shame you're on the street with the rest of us. You don't belong here." Jeremy smoked his cigarette a little more. 'Normies' were usually the kids of the rich yuppies who worked for Dot-Commer corporations from 9-5, brought home six figure paychecks, and lived in high-rise downtown house complexes in the Aerie district.

            "Honestly, I don't know what else I'd do. I don't know what it's like to be anything else but a street kid."

            "Get through school, and you'll change that kid - I promise." he smiled at her, finishing his cigarette.

            The last lights of the day were fading away on the west side over the Hudson, and Lana looked up at the house complexes and office buildings with disgust. Together, the two went walking through the back paths of the park where many of the homeless spent their nights.

            "I'll tell ya what." Lana added. "If I did have money, know what I'd do with it?"

            "What?"

            "I'd buy a computer - so I could surf the Internet."

            Jeremy chuckled a little to himself. "You can save up that much - trust me..." His voice trailed off, and he paused, listening. Lana stopped, and turned, listening. Then she heard it - two men were arguing. Quiet as a ghost, Jeremy ducked down low and slipped behind some bushes, Lana following. For several minutes they remained there, listening, as Lana tried to understand everything that was being said. Something in the bushes however began to irritate Jeremy's nose. He turned and sneezed. He tried to stifle the sound, but didn't do too well.

            What followed was a blur. The conversation behind the bushes stopped. The bushes snapped, Jeremy suddenly twisted like he was going to run. A popping sound filled the air, the acrid stench of gunpowder, and Jeremy crumpled to the ground. Terrified, Lana cowered in the bushes until she was sure the thugs wouldn't return, ran back to her dirty little house, and locked the door behind her. What she didn't notice was the face hidden in the trees above where Jeremy laid - the person that picked up the body and took it to Manhattan General. She never noticed that the woman hidden in the trees had wings.

            Detective Maza needed a serious vacation. Her world tour had been anything but a vacation - what she needed was a whole month she could go up to her parents place and just hang around for a while before she went back to work. Besides... she had something she had to think over.

            She tried to focus on the problem at hand though. According to Angela, this was the spot where the man had been killed last night. Elisa searched through the bushes and the grass. She found a shell casing and some blood stains, but nothing else of much use. She would let the lab boys have those things. Satisfied the scene of the crime was yielding her no answers as of yet, she went to the second item on her list.

            Subsidized government housing, unfortunately was barely above poverty level, and Elisa counted her blessings that she made do with the house she had on her NYPD salary. By seeing the house manager, she found herself knocking on a door on the TOP floor. The irony was irresistible.

            The door opened to reveal a very dirty young woman who couldn't be any more than sixteen. Elisa made out a very intelligent young girl behind all that dirt and torn clothing.

            "What?" the girl asked with hostility.

            Elisa opened her badge. "Police. May I come in?"

            The girl was frightened and taken aback - her hands were shaking a little. "Uh, sure."

            Elisa Maza saw only a few fold away chairs in the dingy little room, so she borrow one, and propped it around backwards before sitting down. "Wanna tell me what you saw?"

            "No." Lana replied fearfully. That was the code of the street. You don't see anything, you don't hear anything, or you die.

            Elisa was not discouraged. "Afraid?"

            "Yes."

            "You willing to come downtown with me, or do I need to get me a warrant?"

            Needless to say, Elisa Maza was not thrilled to have to bring her chief witness back to the newly constructed 23rd precinct building and question her there, but she could guarantee her witness protection and privacy there.

            The girl sat in the waiting area while Elisa filed the paperwork, as one of the newer officers to the newly rearranged precinct approached her. With her former partner heading up the gargoyles task force, this was the guy that was most likely going to wind up being her new partner. Elisa loathed him.

            "What is it, Lansing - I'm kind of busy here?" she brushed him off.

            "Here's the file you wanted on the kid. Young genius - completing her GED at fifteen, skills in archaeology, paleontology, and world history. Kid would have a lot of potential if she'd stop smoking pot."

            Elisa sighed. She'd forgotten about the background file. "Thanks. These kids start smoking pot sometimes to keep them from having to think about things - especially the young prodigies."

            With the file in hand, Elisa collected her stray witness, and escorted her back to the interrogation rooms, while Detective Lansing removed a slip of paper from his pants pocket, unfolded it, and smiled.

            She was given a job working at a cannery on the wharf, which used subsidized government low-salary laborers. This was the work she was required to do as part of her staying in that house and getting food to eat. She hated the work, but gritted her teeth and did it - forcing herself to think about not ending up on the streets again.

            Her shift was nearing completion, and everyone was going home. She was covered in flour and things, and she was thinking that she would have to shower every day if she was going to keep this job. She didn't notice as several people entered the factory floor just behind her. Detective Lansing and three other police officers approached her from behind. When Lana finally heard their footfalls on the concrete floor, she looked up suddenly, alarmed.

            "I'm sorry - I didn't hear you coming!" she laughed a little. 

            Detective Lansing was a very angular man, tall, lithe and limber with a heavy build, and ears that were hidden under his hat and his long-as-regulation-allowed stringy brown hair. "My apologies, Ms. Lacy Myers." Lana winced at the sound of her given name. "I was coming to make you an offer. A different job you might find... far more to your liking."

            Lana looked at him. She did not, by nature, trust police officers. Lana did not want to press her luck by walking away from the job at the plant so quickly, but she had to admit there were probably better options out there. "I'm listening."

            Her new room was a dorm with clean walls, clean sheets, and a computer. Since her things consisted of only her bag of clothes and a book bag with personal items, she laid them both down at the foot of the bed. She was drawn to the computer. For a few hours she played with it, learning it by playing around with it, when someone came to her room and knocked on the door.

            There stood a few more nameless, faceless adults she had not met. She stepped out of her door. "What do I have to do?" she inquired.

            "All in good time, miss." someone said.

            She felt a tiny prick in her shoulder. Turning slightly to brush the feeling away, she became suddenly very dizzy, and collapsed in a heap.

            Lana reawoke in hell. Her body felt cold and clammy, but for some reason she could not get warm. She tried to move, but found herself unable to move her limbs. She seemed to be floating in a dark fog. There were sounds around her, like muffled voices - some of them screaming. As she strained to somehow pierce the fog around her, she heard other voices.

            "Lacy Myers, age fifteen, weighs just a little over one hundred pounds. She's a drug and alcohol addict, malnourished, and a hardened survivor of ten years of street life." A man reported.

            "Sounds intriguing, but why her?" A woman's voice inquired.

            "Father is dead, parents are separated, and her legal guardian is little more than a professional prostitute. Evidence has been planted that will explain her death as gang-related. She has a high tolerance to disease and many of the rigors of street life. She also tests as having an unusually high I.Q.," the male voice answered.

            "Fascinating project, Detective - my congratulations. Have her brought to my lab for further testing."

            "Of course, Doctor Chen."

            For a while longer, there was silence around her. Some time later she became aware of more voices. She had no idea what the words meant, but knew only that she was tired, and longer for the blissful release of sleep.

            "Alright, everyone - she's awake, but only just. She probably feels very tired and can't understand what we're saying." A male voice reported.

            "Good. Now, we're thinking the only problem with the Advanced Walden-Formula is that the brain has trouble with the procedure and it shuts down. If the subject is at least partially conscious, the patient has a better chance of surviving. This one has a high endurance to a variety of poor conditions, so we suspect better results."

            "Yes, Doctor Chen."

            "Introduce the catalytic polymerase solution and the genetic retrovirus to the subject, and check back with me tomorrow about her progress. When she's ready, throw her in the O2 bath with the others and begin subliminal reprogramming of her mind."

            "Of course."

            Then Lana felt the needles - lots of them - slowly piercing her skin and pumping into her their cold bio-toxic fluids into her bloodstream. She wanted to scream and run, but she couldn't make her muscles respond. She found herself strangely detached from her body. Then she felt herself immersed in a warm watery liquid, and felt herself floating there for what felt like an eternity. Then the pain began - hot and searing, filling every part of her body with a mind numbing blinding ache she was powerless to lessen.  The muffled screams around her became louder - filling her ears and her mind so that she could think of nothing else, only this time she knew the screams were her own.

            When Lana finally awoke to her new life, she had no idea what was going on. She felt herself held down to a table by large metal clamps. She knew she had to escape! She didn't know what was happening to her, but this couldn't be within OSHA guidelines! She couldn't feel her clothes either - what had they done with her clothes?!!! She felt naked!

            She pushed on the restraints with everything in her, every ounce of strength her tiny pain-wracked body could produced, and more - pushing harder against those restraints than her muscles had ever before known, adrenaline washing through every fiber of her body, numbing the pain and pushing tired muscles to push harder. That was when it happened. It began deep in her throat as a low grumble, and began to grow into what finally became the ear-piercing cry that was both falcon and panther, and at the same time neither, making this cry uniquely Lana's own.

            The weaknesses in the metal reached their breaking points, and with the great clanging sounds of bolts and metal pieces being torn in half, Lana ripped her arms and legs free of her restraints, tubes, and wires. She was met with a folly of tazer blasts. She screamed again, collapsing to the table. The moment it passed, she leapt once more, and in a burst of strength she had never felt before, Lana knocked down a group of hooded figures, leaving traces of her blood on their white uniforms from where the bands had torn away at her skin. She heard gunfire behind her, as she raced blindly down halls she had never been down before in her life. Her luck finally ran out, as she found herself pinned down in a dead-end hallway. Masked figures appeared in the hall, firing at her. She felt her leg grazed by a bullet. There! Over her head she had noticed a grate in the wall, with a window beyond it. Lana grabbed the bars and was immediately jolted with hundreds of volts. She screamed again, but without thinking squeezed her body between the bars, punched through the glass, and fell out onto the outside rooftop. There was gravel under her hands, and it stung the cuts and burns all over her hands and knees. She tried to stand, but her body was unstable and wouldn't cooperate.  Lana turned to the sound of more footfalls, and saw the gunmen at the window, taking aim at her. In desperation, she leapt forward on unsteady feet, and threw herself into the air beyond the rooftop... Gunfire sounded, followed by the sound of a chopper's rotors.

            ...and Lana blacked out again.

            "Shall we go after her, Doctor Chen?"

            "No." commanded the subdued female voice, as they watched Lana escape into the night. "We'll see how she does in the wild. She may be our best result yet. Impressive, isn't she?"


	2. Children of the Society

**_Heirs to a Prophesy_**

By Tigris Euphrates (tigris@sbcglobal.net)

Chapter Two: Children of the Society 

            Lana once again knew only pain. However, because she felt it, she knew she was still alive. Her sheets were torn on her dirty bed, which consisted only of a lumpy box less mattress and some dirty blankets. There was a pervasive and sickening odor of burned hair about her. The sheets were also drenched in her blood, as well as her skin. Her things were all missing. How had she gotten in the door? Her keys were nowhere to be seen! A look at the door told her enough. The doorplate for the regular doorknob had been kicked in, but the deadbolt was perfectly in place and locked, as well as the chain.

            Lana suddenly remembered she had only locked the doorknob when she left.

            After lying in her bed for what felt like hours, she picked herself up, and practically crawled over to the sink. Her few dishes were still in there. She turned to the cupboards where there were a few items left by the government charity agencies... and a FIRST AID KIT! Lana thanked every star and Goddess she could name all at once, as she pulled down the box marked conspicuously by the American Red Cross.

            It contained a number of clean needles to help addicts reduce their rate of HIV transmission, but it also had plenty of sterile pads, gauze, band-aids, and betadine solution. She found a washcloth, added some of the solution, and began to clean the wounds on her wrist... when she noticed something, and paused.

            'That sure is a funny color...' she thought. She rubbed at it some more... the color persisted.

            She picked herself unsteadily off the floor, and went to the corner of her room where she had a small one-horse bathroom that had a standup shower. Turning it as cold as she could get it, she spun the dial on, and let the water run over her body.

            She hissed and snarled as the water touched her wounds. Dirt, blood, and other things washed away... but the odd color remained. And that sound...? Did I make that hissing noise? Is there an animal in here? That couldn't have been me...

            Naked, and sopping wet, the shower still pouring, Lana stepped up to the bathroom mirror and looked.

            The scream shattered the glass on the bathroom's window.

            There was now a cool breeze drifting in through her bathroom window, from the airshaft beyond, that resided in the center of her building. The mirror was cheap - made of a shiny reflective metal, and so it did not break.

            What she saw was a blue version of her own face. She followed the dark blue coloring down to every extremity of her body. As she studied the image in the mirror, there were two shapes behind her, and she soon realized she could move them without a conscious thought. They were wings! Large batlike wings with three little fingers at the tip. While the inside skin the wing itself was a light purple at the end and turned gradually into an emerald green near the top. She flexed the appendages, even folded them around her shoulders a few times. She touched them, feeling the skin and looking at that fantastic display of color.

            Examining the other changes to her body, her forehead had sprouted small forward pointing horns amidst all her ebony hair. Looking closer at her hands revealed they were not hands at all. Her fingers had become long, sharp talons, and one of her fingers on each hand was missing. The same was true of her feet - which had changed dramatically as well. She walked on three toes now, and instead of a heel, she had a sharp fetlock on each foot. Her knees and elbows had been replaced with wicked looking barbs. Strangest of all, was the prehensile tail that hung from the base of her back, which she could swing back and forth, and wrap around things.

            Suddenly a thousand questions flooded through her mind. What had happened to her?  What had caused this?  Why had is happened to her? With no good answers, and her body aching still, she sat down in the shower with the water pouring over her, and began to cry again.

            After about twenty minutes of this, she turned the water off, and went back to attempting to bandage her wounds. That was when someone started pounding on her door.  She panicked - could it be them? Could they know where I live? Did they follow me here? Who could it be at this hour of the morning? She couldn't even remember how she'd gotten home in the first place! Could she have been followed? 'Get a hold of yourself!' She scolded herself. 'It's probably just a neighbor or the house manager or someone. They can't get in with the chain and the deadbolt drawn.' 

            Sure enough, after a few minutes, the knocking went away.

            She sighed for a minute, collecting her thoughts. She went back to bandaging for a time before her body was momentarily filled with a warm, pleasant sensation spreading throughout her body. She let loose a cry, trying to move, but found herself held rigidly in place. The morning sun had claimed her.

            Lana had the desire to scream again, and she did, stretching herself out to her full span. Her body was tired, but she felt refreshed and rested. What time was it? A quick look at the small clock on her wall told her that it was early evening. A quick look at her wrists told her that all the scraped, burns, bruises, and cuts from the night before were gone!

            "Sleep well?"

            Lana spun around to see Elisa Maza propped backwards on a chair, smiling at her. A quick glance at the door revealed that she had not broken in - the locks were all still in place.

            "How did you get in here?"

            "If you hang around with gargoyles as long as I have, you pick up a few things. I... found my way to the roof, climbed down the shaft to your windowsill, and used the broken glass to unlock the window, and climbed in. It's okay, I'm one of the good guys, though it seems I was too late to keep you from getting bitten by the bad guys."

            Lana felt a little embarrassed. Her clothes had been taken from her the day before, and she had packed away most everything she had and taken it with her then. She had the dirty blankets from her old bed, though - and she wrapped one around her middle. "Yeah, I guess I'm screwed now. They have my ID, my welfare cards - everything. I'm still afraid they might find me."

            "You're not the first one that has been experimented on with serums that turn humans into gargoyles."

            "Gar... Gargoyle? Living ones? Aren't they a myth - like alligators in the sewers?" Lana stammered, sitting down on the mattress. "Can I change back?"

            "Take a look at yourself, and ask me again if Gargoyles are a myth. And no, I'm afraid not - the changes are there to stay. You're going to be a hard case because the metamorphosis looks like it completed, but others have been luckier and still can pass as human with a little work." Lana looked at the floor like she was going to cry. Elisa walked over to the Gargoyle girl and put a hand on her shoulder. "Lacy, I came because someone saw what happened, and told me. I'm here to help you. Maybe I was too late to stop it from happening, but you can help me stop whoever did this. I'm willing to bet it has something to do with those men who killed your young friend in the park who was in drag."

            She sighed and looked at the detective. "Do you honestly think I'm going to trust you after Detective Lansing did this to me?"

            "LANSING DID THIS?!!!" Elisa's voice raised several octaves, and she leapt to her feet. "What happened, girl? Tell me!"

            Slowly, Lana finally admitted everything she knew. Elisa cursed and slammed her fists together when Lana finished. "AND because you're now a gargoyle, you can't testify in a court and Lansing and his other flunkies get off scot free. Fucking perfect. Can you tell me anything about the other two?"

            "Two women, tall and lanky, looked kinda like sisters."

            "I don't know those two badges, but believe me I'm about to find out."

            Lana stood up. "You were a gargoyle once too, weren't you?"

            Elisa was taken aback by the question. "Well yeah, but it was sorta an accident."

            "Something about the way your eyes flash when you're angry." Lana observed.

            Elisa gave her a blank look. "Lacy..."

            That name grated on her nerves for the last time, and she exploded. "My name ISN'T Lacy, Maza!" Lana shouted, motioning to her body. "That... person is dead now thanks to Lansing!"

            Elisa motioned for her to calm down. "Alright, okay - call me Elisa - but I can't call you 'Hey You'. And I won't call you Lana - you're not a street kid anymore - I know some people who will take care of you. You're not safe here, if Lansing found out where you worked, he can find out where you live."

            Lana was a little taken aback by that. Just as she was no longer human - no longer Lacy Meyers, she was not longer Lana either. "Then call me Lanara."

            "Fine, Lanara it is." Elisa nodded. "A new name for a new life, I guess that's fair."

            Lana - or Lanara as she called herself now, sighed reservedly. "Where would I stay?"

            Elisa put a hand on her shoulder. "Look, I know you've got no reason to trust cops right now. The guy and his wife who own the place are both convicted felons - I should know, I threw both of them in jail once! But things changed, and he owns a place where you can be safe and talk to others who've been through the same thing."

            Lanara sighed. "Maybe... for a little while. But then I need to get an house someplace. I'm a human, not a gargoyle."

            "Sorry, but you're NOT, didn't you hear me? We CAN'T reverse the mutations - even my own brother was changed, and he's still got batwings." she pointed a finger at her, and made a wings motion with her hands. "You're a gargoyle, and the best thing you can do right now is to accept it and move on with your life."

            Someone thumped on the door repeatedly. The Detective and the Gargoyle stiffened. A voice came from behind the door. "OPEN UP, IN THE NAME OF THE LAW!"

            Maza immediately recognized the voice, and pulled her semi-automatic from under her red jacket. "LANSING, you SCUMBAG!"

            Lanara pulled on Maza's shoulder. "Back this way."

            Together they scurried off into the bathroom and locked the door. "If it worked for you, then if work the other way." Lanara pointed out, and climbed out the window. The sill was not very big, no more than a foot deep and as wide as the window.

            Lanara looked up the shaft. The bricks could not possibly give her enough of a hold to climb with. "Now what do we do?"

            "I keep forgetting you don't know how to be a gargoyle yet." Elisa muttered flatly. "Pound your claws into the cement and climb!"

            "But that's solid concrete!"

            "Trust me!"

            Lanara did, and no surprise to Elisa, her claws sank right in. Picking Elisa up, Lanara climbed out with Elisa over her shoulders.

            "I have to admit, there are times I miss being a gargoyle. Particularly anytime Demona is trying to kill me." Elisa muttered as Lanara set her down on the roof. There were crashing sounds from the house below.

            "Who?"

            "Nevermind. Let's just glide out of here!"

            "Glide?"

            "Your wings, Lanara - last night Broadway said you glided away from that building." Elisa said in a condescending tone.

            "I don't remember half of what happened last night!" Lanara protested, spreading her wings to their fullest span. "What do you do?"

            "Do what I did! Fuck everything and just JUMP!" Elisa shouted, gunfire erupting from the bathroom's airshaft, and grabbing onto Lanara for dear life. "There's no time!"

            Lanara ran, and threw herself and her passenger into the void beyond the rooftop. Surprisingly, her wings stiffened, caught the air currents, and they glided.

            Elisa took a deep breath as they sailed away from the house building. "Okay, lesson one - you can't fly, just glide..."

            Lanara pointed towards a glass skyscraper that was approaching them very quickly. "Uh, can we skip to the lesson about turning? We're drifting straight for it!"

            "Turn your head! Your body will follow!" Elisa replied.

            Quickly, Lanara did, and almost immediately had to correct her course.

            "Don't oversteer." Elisa sighed, smiling a little.

            As Elisa pointed Lanara's way towards the Aerie district, a ruckus began below. "Look! Up there! It's a monster! It's one of those gargoyle creatures! They're attacking again! Horrible creatures! Filthy beasts!"

            Elisa looked at winged girl who carried her. Lanara tried to look straight ahead, but in the end her eyes welled up and she began to cry. "Look Lanara, I once visited a place called New Olympus. People there treated me like this, and..."

            She was interrupted by the sound of copper blades, and the sound of chaingun fire echoed behind them. "Get down! Towards the deck!" Elisa shouted. "Get low, get fast!"

            Gasping, Lanara dived. She struggled a little, but she regained control near street level. The crowd began to cheer on the helicopter. Lanara didn't need to be told any more, she banked a hard turn around a corner of a building going as fast as she could with her limited practice, and managed to slow the chopper down a little bit, but it caught up in a big hurry.

            Another gargoyle roar filled the air - this one sounding much like a lion instead of a panther or a tiger. Lanara barely made out the sight of several shapes attacking the chopper, before Lanara had to face forward again and straighten her flight out. Now at the base of the Aerie building, she drifted as far up it as she could, and then grabbed hold. Lanara was pretty graceless about it, and a few times Elisa was afraid she was going to get thrown off, but Lanara made it safely to a ledge just below the atrium.

            "Elisa!" someone called out to them. Two more gargoyles appeared, landing far more gracefully on the same ledge, a teal colored overweight male, and a beautiful lavender female - both appearing to be a little older than Lanara - probably about eighteen and twenty one. Lanara gasped - amazed at the sight of real live gargoyles.

            "I'm fine guys - but I'll need a lift back up to the castle, and Lanara probably will too." Elisa noted.

            "Lanara?" asked the male - the other two gargoyles looked straight at Lanara.

            "Yeah Broadway - she's the one that escaped from that building last night. Your suspicions were right - she's another mutate. She might need some help getting up to the castle. Introduce her to Kanthara, and get her some clothes."

            Lanara looked away, embarrassed. She felt like a weakling and a fool, had tears all over her face, and except for her wings, was completely naked. She could not read from their faces if they liked her or not, but at least they had not been openly hostile toward her. She had caught them looking at her, and it was a look she knew all too well.

            The lavender female assisted her in climbing up the building to the castle at the top. With her wings wrapped around herself, she thanked the lavender gargoyle woman.

            "My name is Angela." she replied in a friendly way. "You'll be safe here, and welcome company."

            "I'm sorry about my clumsiness, but I'm not used to being this way..."

            Another voice cut her off. "We're used to it." The voice belonged to a female gargoyle that emerged from the castle. She had long flowing white hair done in a mohawk on her head. She had orange wings, large gold earrings and bracelets, and very human attire. Her face was framed by two sets of horns on either side of her forehead. "The number of humans changed into gargoyles like us seems to be rising, and we only know about the ones that have escaped - how many haven't escaped?"

            Elisa and the yellow gargoyle exchanged a look - and unpleasant, untrusting look. Elisa went elsewhere. The yellow gargoyle handed Lanara a robe.

            "You were human too?" Lanara inquired.

            She nodded, motioning for Lanara to follow her. As they descended the parapets, Lanara was fascinated at the castle - she'd never dreamed of being inside a real castle before! "My name is now Kanthara."

            "Lanara."

            The yellow gargoyle looked at her. "I think I might have seen you from afar before this happened, but most of us don't like to talk about ourselves before the change." They boarded an elevator and emerged out onto a balcony above the atrium. "Look, I know how you feel. You don't trust anyone right now. You feel violated - raped of your very humanity, but you can't let it consume you. You've got to do what we've done - learn to move on." Kanthara looked away from Lanara down at the atrium pool. "You'll learn how, in time, to accept what's happened, and help us bring did this to justice like any other rapist."

            Lanara looked at the floor, crumpled into a little ball on the balcony floor, wrapped her new wings around her entire body, and cried. Kanthara took the new gargoyle girl in her arms and held her. "I'm sorry." Kanthara sighed.

            "Is it my imagination..." David Xanatos inquired, "Or is there a resemblance?" Using one of those remote controls he always seemed to have, he clicked the viewing screen off and gave the broad-chested Goliath one of those looks that spoke volumes.

            Goliath sighed thoughtfully in his impressive, masculine way. "Yes, I see what you mean. She does look... familiar."

            "I'm not too sure about you, but the hair, the eyes, the coloring, the... dynamic and SHAPELY figure - they speak loudly of our dear Angela." Xanatos concluded, sitting down at his computer, and punching away. "My only question is - where did they get cells from Angela to start copying her DNA?"

            Goliath gave a frustrated noise. "Loch Ness."

            David looked up from the computer, confused. "Loch Ness?"

            Goliath turned to him. "When Elisa, me, Bronx, and Angela were sent to Loch Ness by Avalon, we were sent there to put a stop to Sevarius's evil surrounding the creatures of legend who reside there. Using one of his submarines, he captured Angela and held her for several days before we were able to free her. He must taken a sample of her blood then."

            David looked at him for a long moment. "Too bad I fired him after that arrest."

            "We can't keep her here with the others - not if she doesn't want to stay. We might have to put her with one of the others, like Robbie and Walden." Goliath shook his head. "Besides, I cannot predict how Angela will react when she learns that Lanara was created from her blood."

            "True. I'll see if I can find a place for her, so in the meantime you might ask Kanthara to introduce her to Robbie, Walden, Payton, and the other gargoyle mutates." Xanatos's eyebrows furrowed. "We don't have time right now to help another girl cope with her transformation, but we do need her help."

            Goliath sighed. "Agreed, but we cannot deny the child her need to mourn. To push her would be inexcusable."

            "He's right, David." Came Fox's voice from the doorway. Fox stood there, in her usual daywear dress and finery, holding the young Alexander in her arms. "She's been through a lot - you can't expect her to recover immediately. Remember what Elisa said? If she were still human, she'd need crisis counseling. She's hardly fit to be a warrior right now."

            David Xanatos turned back to Goliath, and the two exchanged a long look.

            Thankfully, when the knock came, it was from the window and not the door. This meant one of two things. Either it was trouble that they could handle, or two it was a friend. Life seldom was doing Robbie Mackenzie any favors lately, but apparently today was an exception - because tonight it was a friend.

            "Kanthara!" Walden exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

            Kanthara, rarely the social type, stepped aside to reveal the friend she had with her. A young gargoyle girl stood on the rail next to Kanthara, covered with a blanket, and shivering in fright. "Elisa found her during the day today. She was just changed yesterday. Someone combined her DNA with Angela's." she explained succinctly. Kanthara and Lanara carefully stepped down from the window into the house space. "We were watching the city yesterday night, and saw her escape. We attacked the helicopter that was chasing her, but lost her in the process. Elisa found her after she turned to stone."

            All eyes turned to the new girl.  She felt like she had been put on the spot. "Uh... my name is Lanara." She stammered.

            "Walden" "Robbie" "Magistrate" "Payton" the others introduced themselves with a rather stiff shaking of hands. The girl, despite the fact she had lots of brownish auburn  hair, wore glasses, and all of her skin that showed was flesh tone, she was less than human. She had very large wings with single digits on the end that she would drape around her shoulders, large fanlike ears, barbed joints, and gargoyle claws.

            Kanthara turned to leave, but Robbie put a hand on her shoulder. "Any idea who's doing this yet?"

            Kanthara took two steps up the windowsill, and sailed off into the night, back in the direction of the Aerie building, leaving behind only the sound of her wings catching an updraft. The attention turned back to Lanara. Walden motioned her to a chair, as Robbie disappeared into a closet.

            "How old are... were you?" Walden inquired.

            "Fifteen."

            Robbie made a noise from the closet. "Add child molestation to the charges."

            Walden looked back at her. "Right."

            "Who are you?" Lanara inquired.

            Robbie returned with a few articles of clothing from her closet and laid them down at Lanara's feet. "I told you - my name is Robbie, he's Walden, Magistrate, and Payton. We're roommates because we have a common problem."

            Lanara looked back and forth at the two half-breeds. "You were human once, like me - weren't you?"

            "Still are, to some degree." Walden pointed out. "We don't turn to stone." Robbie gave him a look. "Well..." he corrected himself. "At least not yet."

            "But what about me? Can I look like you?"

            Walden studied her critically.  "I don't think so. It looks like the retroviral program ran it's course and has gone into remission."

            "How can you tell?" Lanara inquired.

Walden paled a little, frowning. "I kinda... helped designed the formula." He turned away, a visibly stricken look crossing his features that Lanara picked up on.

            "Oh." Lanara decided not to press him any further.

            "Try these, they're too small for me. The police woman gave them too me after the change, but they didn't fit me." Robbie instructed, pointing to some of the denim she had laid before Lanara.

            Lanara picked them up, looking nervously at Walden. "Can I... use the bathroom?"

            "Such as it is." Robbie jabbed her thumb in that direction. "Don't worry, they won't look."

            Walden and the others did as he was told, and turned away. Quickly and industriously, Lanara tried them on. She turned to Robbie. "They fit, but I can't wear these with my... legs this way."

            "I've got a sewing machine, do you know how to use one?"

            She nodded. Robbie pulled the device out of the corner, and Lanara went to work with scissors and sewing machine while they talked.

            "So how much do you know, Lanara?" Walden asked.

            "Nothing." She snorted, her back to them, working on the jeans. Robbie tossed her a few bits of feminine underwear and a white cotton sports bra, which Lanara took gratefully. "Thanks so much, Robbie! Who is this group that everyone keeps talking about? Why did they turn me into a monst... a freak? Who are all those others who live at the castle at the Aerie building? How did they do this to me? Why? Who are they?"

            "One thing at a time." Walden said. "I used to work with this company, but I soon saw that what they wanted was going nowhere I wanted to be. I met Robbie, and saw what they had done to her. When I protested, someone attacked me, and I began to change. They seem to think they own humanity and can do with it as they please. Many view gargoyles as the next step in our evolution, and whoever is behind this is experimenting on making humanity better by mixing their DNA with gargoyles'."

            "Gargoyles?" Lanara asked in confusion, still adjusting to the concept. "Like the ones I saw back at the Aerie tower?"

            "Yep, though they were BORN gargoyles, with the exception of Kanthara. One of their people probably noticed you and thought you were smart enough to be a good subject for an 'advanced human' and that's why they experimented on you."

            "Hatched." Walden corrected. "Gargoyles hatch from eggs."

            "Shut up." Robbie snapped at him, annoyed. Walden was quiet.

            Lanara stood up from the machine, and pulled on her creation and buttoned it. It was a tight pair of the detectives' denim jeans, only cut off at just above the knee and restiched to avoid being cut by the spikes on her knees, and a slit had been cut high in the seat of the jeans and resewn, through which she slipped her tail. It was a nicely 21st century look - a white sports bra and blue denim. "Can I keep these?" Lanara inquired. She had altered each of three pairs of jeans Robbie had given her.

            "Sure. I've got sports bras laying around all over the place - take some more." Robbie chuckled. "You could make money off those selling them to gargoyle girls."

            "You look good." Walden smiled, and gave her a thumb's-up.

            Lanara blushed. "Thanks."

            "Your wings are an interesting color." Walden added.

            Lanara didn't like being reminded of her predicament any more than was necessary. "I didn't choose my colors."

            "That's not what he meant." Robbie laughed. "Look in the mirror, Lanara. They made you gorgeous!"

            She looked at her reflection once more. "Well, my hair is a little darker than before."

            "Angela's hair is a kinda dark-brown." Robbie observed.

            Walden laughed. "They went to a lot of trouble to make you cute and sexy. They may even have genetically made playmates of their own."

            "Gross!" Lanara protested.

Robbie gave Walden a look that could have melted steel, and turned back to Lanara. "All we're saying, dear, is that you need to be aware that they went to a lot of trouble to sexualize your body. Not everything came from Angela's DNA - the blended wing color looks like something from Angela's mother. But... hey... the horns I've never seen before. They're certainly an interesting touch."

            Lanara touched her horns for a moment with her paw. "But, you're saying I'm ALL gargoyle - no human left?"

            Walden and Robbie looked at each other. "Yeah... looks like it." Walden observed. "The serum I designed causes the polymerases in the body's cells to construct a new DNA code, using only the barest genetic differences I could isolate between humans and gargoyles. It's as though they had the genetic code of a gargoyle from the moment that person was conceived."

            Lanara walked over to the window, put her hands on the ledge, and folded her wings around herself as she had seen the others do. "Can you teach me about fight like a gargoyle and things?"

            Robbie put a hand on her shoulder. "The gargoyles at the castle can do that better than us. Why?"

            Lanara turned to the night sky where a partial moon was rising. "If I'm a gargoyle, then they can't blame Lacy Myers if I KILL whoever did this!" her eyes flamed red, and her fists clenched. "I'll find the man who thinks I'm HIS toy, take his prick, and CUT IT OFF!"

            "WHOA! Get a grip, girl! You can't fight them alone! We need a plan, armor, allies!" Robbie pulled her back, and the amber flame in Lanara's eyes faded. "Let's learn who they are, first."

            She gave a cry of pain, tasting blood in her mouth, and hit the courtyard, landing on her hands and knees. She yelped the pain, and was holding her middle with one arm. Kanthara held out a hand to her, to help her up. "You've got to watch your back. You either have constant neck pain, or you push up daisies."

            Lanara took her wrist in hers, placed one foot, ploughed into Kanthara, and launched the other over her shoulders. Kanthara recovered immediately, and swung her weight into her tail, swiping it beneath Lanara's feet, and once more Lanara's face was on the paving stones.

            She did not stand, but began to cry.

            Angela, watching from nearby, chose this moment to step in. "Let me talk to her, Kanthara."

            Kanthara nodded, helping Lanara again to her feet. The two faced off, and bowed to one another before Kanthara walked off elsewhere in the castle.

            Angela put a hand on her arm as Lanara held her middle where she had recently been kicked. "Why are you doing this, Lanara?"

            Lanara regarded the girl with a degree of open awe. In some way, she felt like Angela's daughter, and thought of her very much like a mother. "I... can't let them get away with they're doing. Somebody has to put a stop to these people, and bring them to justice."

            "Justice will be mete - but not by you alone. This isn't just your fight."

            "I want to make a difference when the fight comes. I want them to know how I feel."

            "You don't want justice - you want vengeance." Angela observed.

            Lanara sighed, deflating. "Maybe you're right. What can I do? I can't just let go of everything I feel."

            "I'm just warning you. Our clan once went after vengeance, and it cost us our home, and nearly cost us Elisa's life." She tried to explain. "Revenge only leads to more vengeance. You need to let it go."

            Lanara said nothing, only sighed, looking down at her large fifteen-year-old gargoyle feet.


	3. Predator

Heirs to a Prophesy

**_Heirs to a Prophesy_**

By Tigris Euphrates and Cmage

Chapter Three: Predator 

It was later that day, as Kanthara was introducing Lanara to the gargoyle's habit of patrolling and protecting the city, when Kanthara instructed her young ward to wait in an ally while she took care of something. Lanara nodded, and wondered at being treated like a kid again. However, as Kanthara was a former street person too, Lanara felt unsurprised that Kanthara still had a few people out there she might want to check up on...

The sound of a fight nearby drew her attention. Peering over the side of a building, she spied a group of thugs chasing another street person. It was probably someone whom the thugs had decided didn't like his face and intended to either beat him up good or kill him. She knew she had the power to stop it now, and she intended to. Lanara spread her wings, and dove, and gave her battle cry for the first time - just like she had heard Kanthara do.

"Behind you!" one of the boys shouted.

"Oops." Lanara realized she had probably just done something really dumb, and curved back towards the alleyway. A gunshot filled the air. Lanara felt something hit her, and she rolled to the ground in the alleyway. Lanara tried to stand up, but felt her body jolted with electricity. She was covered in an electrified hunting net used on large animals! She struggled and struggled to tear the net off her body or wriggle out of it, but the voltage made moving impossible - it was everything she could do just to stand!

Trapped, Lanara recognized the leader of the group - Rico - who walked up to the young gargess and pointed a 12-gauge shotgun at her private parts.

"Don't move, girl.Don't do anything stupid." one threatened. "I'll go real easy on you..."

"Come on, Rico, let's make this quick!I hear these things travel in packs!" threatened another.

"SHUT UP!!!" Rico replied, rage in his eyes. He then turned back to Lanara, admiring her stacked new body."You gonna be nice, bitch? Man, I'm gonna LOVE fuckin' you!"

"Dream on, Rico!" Lanara snarled at him in a very gargoyle way, pulling against the electrified net, pouring voltage into her body. "AHHHHH!!!" she wailed.

Rico loaded a round into the chamber, laughing. "You can spread those legs, or you get a new mouth a few inches south of the old one.Choose."

"HOLD, VILLANS!!!" came a new voice in a noble manner. Even Lanara blinked.

The thugs looked up to see a metallic apparition walking towards them, with the sound of heavy clanking feet.Their eyes widened as they saw a man in full knight's armor, carrying a colored metal shield and wielding a monstrous blade in his other hand."Lay another hand on the lady and I swear, by Harry, you'll regret it for the rest of your sorry lives... what little time you'll have left to live them!"

"You've gotta be fucking KIDDING me! Only in New York man!"Rico points the gun at the man in armor."Get outta here you wacko or else you're gonna get stepped on!"

"Leave, villains...or YOU'RE going to get stepped on!"

**_Geez, Richard..._** his mind screamed at him, **_don't you think you're padding your part a little?_**

"That's it, buddy, you're DONE." Rico shouldered the shotgun and Richard crouched, holding up the rectangular shield and bracing himself, angling the surface of the shield.The shotgun roared, pounding the shield with buckshot and Richard was thrown onto his back, but he had figured right - the heavy-gauge steel of his shield had held. The sound reverberated from his shield, causing it to ring. Rico's grin vanished as he realized that the armored man was getting back to his feet.Rico raised the gun again, then saw that the last round had jammed the chamber without ejecting.He looked up again and saw that the knight was now running towards them, a battle cry rose from behind the helmet, and sword up high in the air. "GOD AND KING RICHARD!!"

Kanthara's battle cry was heard, and out of the darkened night sky came her foot, aimed right square into Rico's jaw. Rico fell back as Richard bashed him with the shield, knocking him down. "Where's Lanara???" Kanthara shouted frantically to Richard. The others were not too surprised to act, and they drew their own weapons - knives, a chain, a baseball bat.Richard smiled.HERE was combat he could deal with, though he was still outnumbered five to one.He ran to the trapped girl and put himself between the thugs and her.

"Try to pass at your peril!"He warned her in a noble fashion.

Lanara's eyes glowed, and she snarled. "That's easy for YOU to say!"

"GET HIM!!!" one of them yelled, and they fell upon him, slashing at him.The baseball bat bounced off the shield and Richard lunged, letting the steel ride up his thigh, causing a long slash design to cause more pain than injury.The thug howled as he stepped back, but the chain-wielder was already taking his place.Richard had to step back and gripped his sword to keep it from being yanked away.The exhaustion of the day's battle was taking its toll, however, and he had to force himself to keep alert and active.He would die before he would let them take her.He knew it as he knew how to breathe; it was a part of him.Where the courage or zeal came from, he couldn't tell... but it was there and it gave him new strength.

"Behind you!" Lanara shouted in warning. One of the knife men yelled out and more thugs came from around the corner, nine more of them. The reinforcements came in, then stopped as the winged shaped of Kanthara swooped down once more for another pass - unwilling to give up the element of air superiority, scattering the first group like tenpins as she lashed out with unfettered gargoyle strength.Now they faced an angry knight and an enraged gargoyle, and they decided that the odds were no longer in their favor.Yelling and running, they left their "blood-brothers" to their fate.

Richard stepped back, his armor unbearably heavy and he went to one knee.

"Lanara!" Kanthara exclaimed, spying her young protègè - worried and pained at her plight. Kanthara landed and ripped through the net's power device, allowing Lanara to break the cords almost effortlessly. "Are you alright?"

"Remind me to get the plate number of the cab that ran me over." Lanara moaned, turning to Richard.

Richard dropped the shield and managed to get his sword back into its scabbard, and finally pulled off his helmet.Sweat poured and he realized dimly that he must smell dreadful."My apologies ladies... I must smell atrocious."He sat down and laid his head against a wall. "Are you hale, milady?" Lanara nodded, militarily. "Good..." Richard sighed, noticing that they weren't flying off immediately."Allow me to introduce myself.My name is Richard."

"As in King Richard?" Lanara asked, smiling.

"Call me Kanthara."The older gargess looked down at Richard."You do realize, of course, that what you did was really, really dumb.Taking a sword to a gunfight is not considered a really bright idea..." She smiled."However, you did hold them off until I showed up, and for that I thank you."

Lanara lay down by the wall, rubbing her skin a little, still trying to pull herself together. Richard pulled himself to his feet and walked towards Lanara.He reached out a hand."And your name, gentle maid?"

She smiled, taking his hand. "Lanara." She replied weakly.

Kanthara stepped closer to Lanara protectively."Do you always talk as archaically as you dress?"

"Eh?Oh, the armor.I was at an event at Madison Square Gardens called SCA live steel... I didn't actually step out of Camelot."

"I gathered."Kanthara knelt by Lanara and stroked her skin, rubbing feeling back into her body. "I'm gong to have to take her home, Richard.Thanks for the assist."

"Uhm..."

"Yes?"Kanthara looked back as she gathered Lanara easily into her arms, both spreading their wings.

Richard considered, and then was silent."Nothing.Look, you'd better go before they get their courage up again."

"Will you be alright?" Kanthara asked.

"I'll be fine... nobody saw my face, so I doubt I'll have any trouble." He smiled with confidence.

Kanthara nodded, and helped the younger gargess over her shoulder, supporting her until they could get air under her wings again. Lanara stopped, and looked back at Richard.Like a perfect moment in time, their eyes met. Richard felt something within him, a very unfamiliar sensation... but a very pleasant one.It gave him the strength to break into a run as he left the alley... in fact, he felt as if he could fly himself.

Kanthara poked Lanara. "Coming?"

Richard held out a hand to them. "Wait..." Kanthara paused, blinking at him. "Will I see you again?"

Kanthara shrugged. "You might not like that... hanging around gargoyles is not exactly a good way to ensure a long life and good health." Her sarcastic tone was dry and humorless.

Richard lowered his hand they looked at each other for a while, then Kanthara turned and leaped into the air, grabbing air.Richard watched them go, then beat feet home.

Once inside, he tossed his jacket to the side, putting his backpack on the bed and sitting down in front of the computer.For the thousandth time that day, he wondered how Kanthara and her ward were doing.He couldn't get the young gargess Lanara out of his mind; she appeared every time he seemed to close his eyelids.

Maybe there really is magic, Richard thought, drifting off to sleep.

Richard snapped awake.He felt his eyes drooping, and his brow furrowed."I thought I was tired, but I didn't think I was that tired...maybe... (yawn) I'll just grab a nap and call it a night..." He got up and his head swam, and he fell to the floor just as the gasses in his house began to thin and disappear.He didn't hear the men enter and never felt their hands as he was picked up and helped outside to the unmarked van, placed inside, and taken away.

The van continued on to a facility in the business district, hidden behind the innocuous walls of an office building.He was taken to a gurney and wheeled into a large room filled with sophisticated equipment and white-suited men with masks.They watched as Richard was wheeled in, and one man walked down to the side of the gurney as, twenty feet overhead, a man in an Army uniform watched.

"You've watched the surveillance videos on this one?

"Yes, but why now?"

"He made contact with one of the runaways - we can't let word of that get out."

"Progress," his deep voice commanded, a frustrated edge on his voice.

"We've placed stories in the media that his home was broken into.Our men on the police have planted evidence leading to a kidnapping, and a sloppy murder later on.A body has been located that will serve."

"Continue."

"After a complete analysis of his genetic makeup, we can begin the process in an hour. He has the stamina you were looking for, and should be able to survive the process."

"Excellent, proceed and update me on the progress.I have some Senators to placate and an alibi to create."The man left, imperiously walking through the halls back to his vehicle.

Samples were taken of every kind of tissue he had, bone, organs, blood, even a small part of his brain was removed and tested for reactions to a series of chemical compounds.Richard was blessedly asleep during all this, but his nightmares were vivid and wild.Surrealistic images of familiar things bombarded him; even the two gargoyles he had met had turned into tentacled monsters and slowly devoured him.

And he couldn't wake up.

Finally, four vials were brought to him. His neck was tapped with a drip, and each one of the fluids were injected into his neck...

Then real nightmare began.

His dreams began to fade and disappear, and all that was left was a timeless grayness that filled his vision and clouded his brain.He didn't know how long he was like that, but all at once it changed - a blinding spike of light wedged itself into his brain and he blinked. 

The room was back, and he was alone except for a young woman of Asian descent; Richard's mind couldn't make out her features distinctly.His head throbbed painfully and his mouth felt as if it was full of cotton."What...?"

"SSSHH!Not a word.You've got to get out of here."

"What... bloody hell... what happened?Where am I?"

She pulled his bonds free and helped him up."There's no time to explain."

"Who are you?"

"I am Akiko.Come on... you've got to escape!"

"From where...?"Richard squeezed his eyes shut in pain."From whom?"

"Come on..." Akiko led him down the hall, away from the lab and to a locker room.She tossed him some clothes."Get dressed."

Richard suddenly realized that he was completely naked, but was in too much pain to protest.He sat down and pulled his clothes on, but the denim jeans felt like chainmail and the cotton shirt felt like burlap.

"I don't understand..."

"You've been selected for an experiment.I came here to help you escape before they could turn you into a tool."

"They, they whom?"

Akiko looked down at Richard."Put your shoes on, Richard.We don't have much time left before their shift change."

Akiko brought Richard down into the garage, looking around.Richard followed, and then stopped suddenly as he feels his head explode with a fresh burst of pain.It drove him to his knees, his eyes watering as he falls."AAAAAAAAHRRRRR...!!!"

Akiko turned back."Richard??"

"MY HEAD... feels like the population... of New York... is screaming in my ears!!!"

Akiko dragged Richard to her Jeep and pulled him inside, then closed the door and ran to the other side.Richard didn't feel nearly as heroic, but he kept himself from screaming at the flames that were eating his brain and moving slowly down his neck to engulf the rest of his body.

"What... did they do to me??"

"I don't know... all I know is that the equipment they used was made for genetic research."

"Genetics?"Richard held his stomach with his hands, feeling the knives start to begin."Please... God..."

"We're almost out... just stay calm."

"Calm?My body feels like it's going through a meat grinder... oh LORD..." he said through gritted teeth as another wave of pain hit.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself in an apartment.At first, he thought the whole thing was a horrible dream, but then he noticed that his ceiling had changed colors.He sat up in bed and looked around, finding himself in a strange room, in a strange house.

"What happened?"He wondered aloud, and then stopped."Must have a cold or something... my voice sounds weird..." He reaches up to his throat and touches it tentatively, then stopped.

His grip felt very strange.He didn't move, unwilling to look at his hand. The word "GENETICS" kept moving around in his brain.

"Please, God... no..." He closed his eyes and walked towards the door, his mind going in circles around the inside of his skull. He burst through the door without even bothering to open it, opening his eyes to look around for a phone."I've got to call somebody...." He reached out to pick up the phone, but stopped just short as his hand came into view...

...Or more accurately, his claw!

His skin was midnight black, the claw thick and massive, and four fingers given way to three talons."Please, somebody tell me I'm just going crazy...!!!"

If it weren't for her stone sleep, Lanara doubted she would have slept well that night. She was having trouble keeping her thoughts off of Richard. That fleeting memory of his eyes was stuck in her memory, and she was starting to obsess over it. She was terrified of mentioning it to the other gargoyles - uncertain of how they would react, and so she kept herself quiet.

"Kanthara, Lanara..." Brooklyn came into the room."I just heard on the police scanner... there's a report of a black monster with wings at 54th Street and Thomas."

Gee, isn't that close to where we met Richard? Was the thought that crossed Lanara's mind, but refused to voice it.

Kanthara nodded."Come on, Lanara - you're with me.Let's go."

Lanara was not exactly unwilling to tag along.

Richard stopped as he slammed the door to the roof closed, leaning against it.He could hear people rushing up the stairs, so he ran for the lip of the roof, looking down. The ground was probably thirty floors down.

He turned back towards the door.People were pounding on it, trying to get through.He looked down.

**_Nowhere else to go... might as well end it now..._** Richard leaped from the roof blindly, wanting to die... but something within him screamed into his brain, WHAT ARE YOU, NUTS????

Richard opened his eyes.Twenty floors left to go before it was street pizza time.

Richard blindly reached out for the wall, expecting to feel his fingers scrape off, but instead felt the concrete give under his claws.A loud SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEE came forth as Richard slowed himself to a stop, fifteen floors above the ground.He gripped the wall with his body, hugging it close.

"Just don't look down... don't look down..." he repeated over and over, and then ignored his advice.He squeezed his eyes shut."Right... just don't look down AGAIN..."

Richard hung on for dear life, his claws and talons embedded in the concrete. **_I'm not moving... I don't care, I'm not moving an inch, not a bleeding chance..._** Richard held on, trying to get his brain to clear. **_Come on, Richard... get it together..._** He pulled his hand up, scraping his claws over the wall, slowly moving it up over his head.

It didn't take long for Kanthara and Lanara to spot the dark figure clinging to the outer wall of the building - from their vantage point he was very easy to spot.

"Who is it?" Lanara asked

"No idea." Kanthara asked. "But he doesn't look well."

"Just one more floor, Richard... just one more..."

"Doesn't he look like...?" Kanthara began to point out.

"Richard! Oh my God!!!" Lanara side-winded, calling out his name.

Richard blinked. **_No, that couldn't be right..._** He considered looking around, but he decided against it, instead just calling out, "WHO'S THERE?"

Richard was only barely recognizable as the man he once was, his bulk had nearly doubled and his head now wore a shaggy mane, seeming held in place by thick eyebrow ridges with short spikes radiating from the ridges of his face.His skin and hair were so black he almost looked like a shadow on the face of the building. The most shocking change of all was his tail... or rather, tails.He had two tails, same length, each slightly thicker than Kanthara's tail. 

"JALAPEÑA!" Kanthara exclaimed.

Richard felt a warm touch on his aching shoulder. He risked looking in that direction, and found Lanara's face - etched with concern. "What happened?!!!" she asked in desperate concern.

"Please... somebody just get me down..." The plaintive tone in Richard's voice was extremely unsettling, especially to Richard, and he felt ashamed.

"Take his shoulder!" Kanthara instructed. The two females took him buy an arm, helping him to shift his weight onto them. Once Richard was off the wall, the two girls, took to the air, and helped him to a nearby rooftop.

His clothes were in tatters, only his pants still around...and only by shreds.He was almost as broad chested and powerful looking as Goliath for a boy of Lanara's age.Kanthara noted as she got closer that he had a line of short, sharp spines running from his forehead over the middle of his head down to the back of his neck.She also noted with some concern that his tongue was forked, his hands were slightly webbed and his ears moved back and forth, canting like a cat's ears.

Richard allowed himself to be pulled up, giving no resistance as he was pulled to the roof again and set down.Kanthara looked at Richard.His eyes were a dark, icy blue...dull with confusion. Kanthara was considering him with a thoughtful look. "Whatever they did to Richard, they didn't blend him like they did to us, they added things. A whole different kind of mutate."

Lanara put her arms around his shoulders, trying to calm him. "It's okay, you're safe now. Tell us what happened - we're your friends."

"I don't know... I came home, woke up in a lab... I got out... somebody got me out... I woke up in an house with nothing..." Richard shook his head. "Why?I never did no harm to anyone... why'd they do this to me???"

Lanara looked up at Kanthara with a thoughtful expression. "Richard - Did you have a high IQ in school? Have any special physical abilities?"

"Never took an IQ test, mum and father never believed in them.I got good grades though... I was a grade head of my peers, that's why parents wanted to finish my schooling here.Thought it would teach me self-reliance or some other thing. God, my parents..."

"That's why they took me and Robbie and turned us into freaks - because we were really smart."

Richard paused, and looked at Lanara. "What do you mean - you were human once? Who's doing this to us?!!!"Richard's reply was nearly a cross between a roar and a scream.

"We know that not everyone is lucky enough to get away from them." Kanthara explained.

Lanara put a hand on his arm.

"What am I going to do now?I can't go home, I can't call my parents, my friends..."

Lanara squeezed his arm a little. "Neither can I. Come with us to the castle. I've been needing a roommate anyway."

"Castle???"Richard felt woozy.

Kanthara turned to Lanara."Stay with him... I think I might know someone who can get us there, fast.Dawn is coming.Stay with him."Kanthara got a slim digital phone out of her pocket and dialed."Derek?Kanthara.I need a favor."Kanthara relaxed significantly as she listened."Thank you, Derek.I owe you one..." 

Lanara smiled at Richard. "It'll be okay. We'll see if we can get your things from your house. The people who changed me took all mine."

Kanthara hung the phone up, and regarded the boy. "Why did he get away...?"

That's when the sound of the chopped was heard overhead. A bright light shone on them.

"No!" Kanthara exclaimed, shielding her eyes.

Lanara pulled out the laser weapon she had been given, standing over Richard.

The pilot smiled."Control, this is Foxtrot Zero Zero.I have them."

The reply from the base was swift and final."Neutralize them."

"Roger that."The pilot nodded to the gunner, who armed the rocket launcher and fired.

Richard saw the rocket heading towards them and all attempts at suicide melted away.Kanthara snarled, "SCATTER!!" and the three bolted in different directions as the rocket hit where they used to be. 

Richard ran towards the stairwell door.He might've made it too, but the sound of chaingun fire turned his eyes from his goal for a moment.He looked back to see the gunship turning towards Lanara, the bullets chewing up the rooftop behind her.

"LANARA!" Richard exclaimed with concern. Something went "snap" in his brain.All thoughts of self-pity, remorse and fear vanished like snow before a flamethrower and he turned, running back towards the chopper, his eyes burning a fierce red and an inhuman ROAR thundered across the rooftop.The chopper saw him too late, turning to aim, but Richard closed the distance too quickly.He leaped to the chopper's front, his claws digging into the metal and he roared his rage once again, causing the Plexiglas canopy to shudder.

The pilot panicked, pulling back on the control stick as he saw the canopy ripped down the middle, a massive claw reaching in and grabbing the face of the gunner.

Richard SQUEEZED.

"HOLY SHIT!!!" the pilot yelled as the gunner ceased to function, the front of his skull squeezed together like an empty beer can.The pilot barreled around, shaking Richard loose as he pulled back to a safer distance, taking over the gunner controls.

Richard fell to the roof hard, just starting to recover as the gunship moved into position.The pilot grinned as he poised there, his thumb over the trigger that would wip the roof clean of all life, when a red light went on in his vision.He recognized the warning signal too late: the RADAR LOCK tone.

Below him, the RoadBuster fired a missile directly into the chassis hiding the chopper's main source of power, blowing the engine apart and sending fire through the vehicle's core, flash frying pilot and gunner before veering off to crash in the street below.

Richard ROARED in triumph as he saw the vehicle crash, then turned as he heard Kanthara approach.She waved at the car below."We're on our way down!"

Derek nodded, noting the big black gargoyle at the edge of the roof. "Geez, this guy looks like what my car would look like as a gargoyle.What's HIS story?"

Kanthara turned to Richard."Get Lanara and go to the car.The driver is a friend of mine."

Richard nodded and looked around, trying to find Lanara.He couldn't see her.He stepped forward and that's when he heard something... it was a heartbeat, clear as a bell in his ears.He followed it to the source and found Lanara hiding behind an air conditioning unit, holding her left leg.Richard bent down to look at the wound.Shrapnel from the bullet's impacts had bruised her leg, but she was okay.

Richard picked her up and carried her to the edge of the roof.Kanthara had already glided to the street below.

"Thanks for the lift, Derek."Kanthara smiled and Derek had to remind himself that Kanthara was happily married.

"Null perspiration."He pointed up to Lanara and Richard."Who's the tree trunk?"

"Long story."

Derek sighed."Get in.We're about to get a serious case of the blues, so move it."

Richard looked down, and then took a half-step back."Lanara, are you alright?"

She groaned, holding a paw over the throbbing shrapnel wounds in her legs and tail. "Twice in a week!"

Richard looked down at Lanara."How... how do I use my wings?I don't even know what muscles to flex..."

Lanara looked up at Richard."Try thinking of them as hands. It'll come naturally to you."

Richard nodded, then closed his eyes and flexed.His wings came out sharply, spreading to a HUGE wingspan.Richard smiled, then opened his eyes and jumped, angling his wings.He came down faster than he wanted to, but his powerful limbs cushioned the impact, crunching the asphalt underneath.He stood up from the crouch and looked around."This new body... has certain advantages..."

"No shit, Sherlock." Derek smiled. "Now get in.We've gotta go."Derek got back into the driver's seat as the others got in, Kanthara in the shotgun seat and Richard squeezing into the back."Geez, Kanth, where'd you get the Chrysler Building back there?"

"Derek...!"

"Right, right, no conversations with the cabbie, got it.Hang on, back there, this ride may get a little bumpy."The triple turbine engines whined into life and the car rocketed forward as if stung, moving like lightning down the street and around a turn, the wheels gripping the street.

Richard looked down at Lanara, and then ripped off some of the tattered clothing to bind her wound."Lanara, does it hurt bad?"

She groaned. "A little. I might have something wedged in my left leg. It'll cure at daybreak."

"Daybreak?" Richard asked, confused.

Derek saw two blips come up on the heads-up display."Cops.Sorry guys, as much as I would love to have some fun with you, I don't have the time."Derek pulled over and activated the holoflage.The car turned into a beat up gray VW bug sitting on the side of the road and the police roared right past them.

Derek grinned."GOD I love my work."

"Derek, unless you relish the idea of stone shards all over your interior, don't you think we should get back to the castle?We've got less than an hour before we become paperweights."

"Kanthara?Has anyone ever told you that you're no damn fun at all?"Derek put the car into gear and turned off the holoflage, driving off towards the castle and making it in record time... even for him.

Kanthara quickly kissed Derek on the cheek and ran up to the roof, Richard in hot pursuit, carrying Lanara."Who was that guy?"

"Best driver you ever saw.We've got to get into position."

"For what?"

Kanthara got to the roof and went to the side."Alright, Richard, now just go to that outcropping and wait."

Richard moved quickly to the outcropping, still holding Lanara."Now what?" he rumbled. The sun's rays bathed Manhattan and Richard didn't say anything else for a long time.

Akiko dropped the photographs on the general's desk. "Executed flawlessly, sir."

"And Foxtrot zero-zero?"

"Lost. Our subject didn't need much help though."

He looked at the photographs and smiled. "Look in on our subject from time to time - gain his trust. He could be our best project yet."

The gargoyles awoke with a thunderous roar. Kanthara yawned, and scratched her wings for a few moments before turning to her young protègès. Richard felt the urge to stretch at first, but then felt the weight of Lanara in his arms, and held on tightly to her. He looked at her with concern. She roared as well, shattering stone pieces.

"Feeling any better?" Kanthara inquired.

"Much." Lanara smiled, leaping down to the paving stones, and standing right up to her 5'0" fifteen-year-old height.

Richard looked impressed. "Your legs don't have a scratch on them!"

"Yep, the good old concrete cure-all." Brooklyn added, cuddling up to Kanthara.

Lanara turned and gave Richard a hug. "Thanks for saving me! Twice now in two nights."

"I sure hope this isn't a nightly occurrence." Richard sighed, regarding his paws.

"Welcome to the bigtime." Brooklyn sighed. "You get used to it."

Lanara turned to Richard. "Let me show you where my house is. You can't stay in yours anymore because the people who attacked you obviously know they can find you there, and I'll help you move your stuff."

Kanthara nodded, and Richard agreed.

Together the two youngsters glided away into the newborn night. Brooklyn looked at Kanthara after they had left. "What's bothering you?"

"Richard's in danger. How else could someone have freed him?"

Brooklyn sighed deeply, nodding.


	4. Labrys

Heirs to a Prophesy

**_Heirs to a Prophesy_**

By Tigris Euphrates and A Fan

Chapter Four: Labrys February 2004 

The masked men were gathered in a semicircle circle around the bandstand. Their screams were loud as the procession of figures climbed the stand. There were raised fists, angry cries, swinging hammers, and the scents of sweat and death. This was not a rally - it was chaos. Jon Castaway was the man on the bandstand.

Elisa's eyes were ready to shoot bullets. If Elisa were a gargoyle, her eyes would have been on fire. She was leaning against her red Ford Fairlane, watching the rally. Her expression was like stone. She was here on very specific orders - to make sure this rally did not become a riot. She intended to do just that.

"Get in the car, Elisa." Bluestone encouraged her.

"I'm staying right here." Elisa stated with a very hard edge.

The passenger door to the Ford Fairlane opened next to Elisa. "Fine." Bluestone replied. "Then we'll do it together."

"If they so much as hurt someone..." she started to rant.

"Then all you'll accomplish is showing the Cap just how jaded you are about the Quarreymen, and she might even put you in a position where you won't be any help to Goliath and the others anymore."

Elisa sighed, took a few deep breaths, relaxing.

"Look, I know how much you love the guys, but we're in hiding right now just like they are. Goliath wouldn't tolerate one of the guys giving us away right now, and I won't either." Bluestone's voice took on a very determined tone. "Besides, you and I can't take them all on."

"THAT is where you're wrong, Matt. I can take them, but not like this. Not right now. But I will."

The cheering began to die down as the men on the podium made like they were about to speak.

"MY FRIENDS!" Exclaimed the speaker, none other than Castaway himself. These Quarreymen were getting sure of themselves. "Fellow citizens! Concerned people of New York! Do you know what is happening in our city? People are finally starting to take action! To fight back against the terrible demons that haunt their waking moments! But! Would you believe that our own kind has forged together a group to stand against us? We have enemies! Enemies of the human race, bent to destroy our kind!"

Elisa spat. "Oh Puhlease. And they call PIT the enemies of the human race."

"I've been working on him." Matt observed, referring to Castaway. "Doesn't this guy seem familiar, Elisa?"

"Yeah, he's the guy that's inciting violence, fear, bigotry, paranoia, and hysteria in my city."

"Your sounding more and more like the guys all the time." Matt gave her a sidelong glance. "No I mean his voice, the way he talks, the name John, the blonde hair, and well educated. This 'Castaway' name - as in cast away from his brother and sister maybe? The tendency towards violence and hatred of gargoyles? Take away the mustache, redo the hairdo, add a little Scottish accent, and who do you see?"

Elisa looked at him, scowling. She paused for a moment while the wheels in her mind worked. She looked back at Matt. "You don't mean...?"

Looking at one another they both whispered the same name. "Jon Canmore!"

The cloaked figure drew some attention as the post-swing shift people started filing home in the growing darkness of the night. People would turn and look, but the person moved on without drawing much attention, so people ignored her. The cloak covered her body from the neck down, and her arms to her wrists. She wore work gloves on her hands. Her hair was done up rather large, so that it hid her ears and much of her forehead, but it didn't look bad. The foundation on her makeup was a bit thick, but it served.

The address on the slip of paper was vague - as most addresses in the Big Apple usually were, but fortunately Robbie's directions were more specific. Lanara followed them carefully - she didn't want to screw this up or make a bad impression. She had an appointment to keep - and she didn't want to be late.

The name of the place was "The Last Mug". Unsure of what to expect, she was surprised to discover that it was a coffee shop in the middle of the business district near the north end of Central Park, on a particularly dark corner where the street lights just didn't seem to reach. Seeing it, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck start to stand on end - but in a good way. It felt like a safe place. But then, Lanara reasoned, it should be if Robbie and Kanthara suggested it.

There were only a few patrons - one or two with abnormally long ears - floating in and out, several tables with four chairs each spread out across the patron floor, and a pleasant, natural décor with bright colors and moderate but pleasant lighting. Lanara felt a small smile creep across her face. Yes, she felt she was going to like it here. It was one of those places you walk into and immediately feel at home at, because you're positive you've been here before a thousand times, but just can't remember it.

She looked at what was on pastries and beverages display case, and decided to indulge her cravings a little. She hadn't smoked a joint, smoked a cigarette, shot up anything, or sniffed anything for a week or two. For some reason she no longer felt the desire to. However... a shot of caffeine sounded like it would just about hit the spot. 

The man working the espresso bar at the moment was a young slim, fairly handsome looking man in his early twenties who, while not beefy or stout, looked like he had the strength and the wit to hold his own in a fight, named Benjamin. "Could I get a Coke, please?" she asked, trying not to say a whole lot, knowing the first thing they would see were those large fangs in her mouth and start asking questions she didn't want to answer. He did not smile, but turned to a cooler under the counter, and produced the soda.

Lanara took the soda, found an empty table, and sat herself down. Another young man - also in his early twenties, sat down across from her. Lanara felt herself tense a little inside, but she put on her best poker face. She opened her soda, took out the paper with the directions on it, to study the rest of her notes. She needed to lose her disguise next - the appointment was looking for a gargoyle, not a human girl...

"Ever feel like you're the devil?" asked the young man at her table. He was also drinking a coke - caffeine free.

Lanara looked up, a puzzled look on her features. "Excuse me?"

"Nothing, nevermind." He shook his head.

This only perpetuated Lanara's bafflement. Was this some kind of pickup line? Her companion smiled.

"Sorry, I'm Jeffrey Warman. I just needed someone to talk to, and you looked like you did too." He held out his hand to her.

Lanara took it. "Lanara." She replied. His hands felt warm through the gloves. 

"Pleased to meet you." He replied. "I suppose someone like you wouldn't know what it's like to be trapped in a world that doesn't understand you..."

Lanara couldn't help but smile back. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small alcohol wipe, and ran it over her face. She had made it to her destination unmolested - the time for masks was over, especially if she were to meet the person she had come to see. She looked like a gargoyle again.

"Maybe you do know what it's like after all." He took a sip of his drink, and regarded her blue colored complexion with a thoughtful look. "Why not take the rest of your disguise off?"'

Lanara stood, pulled her gloves off, and let the cloak fall to the floor. She placed the articles of clothing together on the floor by her chair. A few of the patrons looked, one even made a startled noise, but no one did or said anything. Most minded their own business, and hardly gave her more than a second glance. She released her wings from around her shoulders, and let them hang relaxed on her shoulders in their natural position. Returning to her chair, she wrapped her tail around one leg of the chair and fiddled with removing the makeup from her face and neck for a few more moments before adding the alcohol prep cloth to the pile beside her chair. She then proceeded to pull a few clips and pins out of her hair, letting it fall around her shoulders, revealing her wicked looking horns and long, pointed ears.

"Hello again, Lanara." Jeffrey put in coyly. "You look much better now."

"Thank you, Mister Warman." She responded. "Why doesn't anyone react?"

"Jeffrey. Most have seen gargoyles and such before, or have their own secret... that's why they come here. Others, well...they just don't notice..." He answered.

"Okay... Jeffrey." Lanara felt less stressful now, and was beginning to relax. She and Jeffrey took another sip of their drinks. "I like it. I feel almost like I was never changed."

Jeffrey spat out his last sip of Coke. "Oh no, don't tell me - transformed?"

Lanara was startled. "Y... yes, about a week ago."

"But... how old are you?!!!"

"Fifteen."

With a sad and frustrated look, Jeffrey considered his soda for a moment more. "What happened?" he finally asked.

Lanara looked around uncomfortably. "Is it safe to talk?"

"It's part of the magic in this place. I think the owner set it up that way. If we had someone who wanted to hurt you in here, they wouldn't remember when they left." Jeffrey explained.

Lanara paused for a moment, thinking. "About a week ago I was offered a new job. They offered me a place to stay, better pay, benefits... who wouldn't have taken it?" Lanara shook her head. "I should have known it was too good to be true. I went willingly with these people to a building not far from here. Instead of putting me to work as I expected, they strapped me to a table so I couldn't move, injected me with chemicals, and I slowly turned into... THIS." Lanara made a motion referring to her body. "And the pain - they didn't give me a single anesthetic or even a goddamn Tylenol. It was like having a lion rip his claws through your skin over and over again for hours..." she stopped, closing her eyes, forcing the memory out of her mind. "I finally found the strength to break my restraints. I was lucky I escaped - they were pulling out all the stops to cut me into sushi after I broke free."

Jeffrey listened with a very hardened expression on his face - clearly unhappy by this news. "Who told you about this place?"

"I somehow got away, and when the sun came up in the morning I turned to stone. That evening, I woke up, and there was Detective Maza waiting for me. She and I know each other from a case she is working on, but I've never liked or trusted her. I've never trusted cops. She took me to see some friends of hers - and a girl named Kanthara. She used to be human like me, before they turned her into a monster too. She's been helping me. The businessman Xanatos helped me get into a house with some friends - he even put a security system in it, and gave me a phone and a computer."

Jeffrey was visibly relieved. "Good to hear you're in good hands now. Not everyone out there is as nice."

Lanara sighed, a depressed look on her face.

"What's the matter?" he asked, concerned.

"They found out they can't fix me." Lanara replied. "My... friends discovered they can't right what these... people... did to my body. The process is irreversible. My old DNA is totally overwritten. I'm trapped. "

"If they wrote over your old DNA with new DNA, couldn't they write over your new DNA with human DNA? That is, if you want to be human again?" Jeffrey explained.

"How would they get a copy of my old DNA? They would need a live cell from a hair follicle or something. I don't even own a hairbrush! One day in stone sleep, and by morning there wasn't a trace of my old DNA even in dead surface cells. Xanatos's people checked." Lanara said in desperation.

"They could use someone else's DNA."

"And become someone else? Take someone else's life? At least like THIS I have half my original DNA blended in with the new code. I'm still at least HALF me." Lanara sighed again. 

"Your body isn't what counts." Jeffrey replied in a very low tone.

This took Lanara aback. She looked down at her paws in a thoughtful manner. "I'm still me, at least on the inside." Lanara thought aloud. "Huh... a human trapped the body of a gargoyle?" she laughed.

"What is the difference between a human and a gargoyle? Is there something so different that you have to say you are a trapped human? Being a gargoyle doesn't make you a different person. It just makes you look different."

"Does a soul have a species...?" Lanara asked herself introspectively.

"Exactly. No it doesn't." Jeffrey replied with certainty.

"I guess I've been making myself out to be a monster in my mind." Lanara concluded.

"Are you a monster? What makes you a monster?"

"I do." Lanara explained. "I look in the mirror and see myself, and I see a monster. If I could only learn to look in the mirror and see... me... again."

"Do you know what I see? I see a person - my new friend. The first one I've had in a long time. Are you going to insult my friend and call her a monster? I hope that when you finish, you realize that you are being ridiculous and you aren't a monster." Jeffrey chastised her. "Isn't it better to be able to look in the mirror and say that you like the person you see there? If I suddenly turned into a gargoyle, would you be afraid of me?"

"No, not since this happened. But I scare myself!" she protested.

"You scare yourself because you aren't used to your new form. It isn't as if you suddenly became a different person. Do you think that our conversation could be very different if you had walked in here human? Just say to yourself, I'm still the same person I was when I was human." Jeffrey gently encouraged her.

Lanara realized he was right. Her eyes began to sting. Lanara covered her face with her hands and began to cry. After a moment, she felt Jeffrey's arm on her shoulder. She let the tears come then, crying herself out for a while.She wasn't a monster. She was Lanara. She may look different, but she was still the same person. Lanara told herself this over and over in her mind. It caused her to cry a little less each time, like ointment rubbing over a scraped knee.

After several minutes she pulled herself together, and looked up at her new friend. "I'm sorry... I haven't... really felt comfortable talking to anyone about all this until now. I'm so used to being alone." 

"I'm glad I could be there for you." Jeffrey smiled.

"I've gotten off of drugs, I've stopped smoking, I still have an apartment, and I still have friends although now they are better friends." Lanara replied, mostly talking to herself. "I'm better off than I was. Appearances mean nothing."

"That's right. Tell yourself that every day. You have a new life. Live that life for everything it's worth. Do all the things you always wanted to but couldn't do before."

"I need a job first." Lanara pointed out, remember the reason she had originally come here.

"Why not talk to Abram?" he pointed out.

"Abram?"

"Abram Wintersmith - he owns this place."

Lanara smiled. "He's the one I'm here to see - Robbie said to ask him about a job."

"Hope you don't mind coffee shops."

"Oh no. My uncle worked in one in LA when I was little." She sipped her coke, and found it was getting flat. "Is he here?"

"Not tonight, but come back tomorrow night. You'll catch him sooner or later."

"Sounds like a plan." Lanara smiled, polishing off the last of her flat Coke. Without even denting the can first, she took the can between her paws, and crushed it flat. "There's a plus - I could never do that before."

He laughed a little. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Is there anything you need right now? If there anything you need help with?"

Lanara thought for a minute. Her eyes strayed to the corner of the room, where there was a payphone mounted on the wall. Lanara thought about her mother and her aunt. They didn't know about her change yet. She didn't like her aunt, but she knew her mother had a right to know. She also had a phone card from when Mr. Xanatos had set up the phone in her house. Her mother would NOT want to talk to her though... "Help me talk to my mother?"

That had not been what Jeffrey had been expecting, but he nodded. "Alright."

Fishing the card out of a little pouch on her belt, she padded on her large three-toed feet over to the phone, and dialed the card number, waited for the tone, and then dialed her old house from memory. She waited for a moment, before a voice picked up on the other end. Lanara asked for a "Helena Myers, please. Tell her it's Lacy calling."

"Hi mom." She began when the voice picked up. Jeffrey did not follow what was being said, but it soon became obvious that Mrs. Myers and her daughter did not get along well. "No, I'm not in trouble!...I'm fine mom....I didn't steal anything from work!...Mom, I don't need any money from you - I need YOU! I want to see YOU!...Because you're my mother!..." Lanara held the phone away from her ear, and a noise could be heard from the other end of the line, very loud - like a person was shouting.

"Mind if I try?" Jeffrey asked, reaching for the phone. Lanara handed it to him without saying another word to her mother.

"Mrs. Myers? I'm a friend of... Lacy's....No, nothing bad has happened to her, she just needs to see you. Is there someway you could arrange to come to New York?...Great, I'll leave instructions on your voicemail to get here, and to reach me....Yes, this is very important....Thanks, Mrs. Myers." With that, Jeffrey hung up the phone.

Lanara blinked at him. "What happened?"

"She has a business trip already scheduled to come down here in two days, but wasn't planning to see you. She said she'd try and make time for you."

"How accommodating of her." Lanara sighed, a slight animal snarl creeping into her voice.

"We'll see how it goes." He said, encouragingly.

"What about me? I'm not exactly the same girl she gave birth to."

"So?"

"What if she flips out?"

"I'll have her come here and talk to her. You can come in when you feel you're ready."

Lanara sighed, folding her arms. "Okay..."

The villagers on east town were restless with the talk of gargoyles and their supposed evils.The detectives were on riot duty. Elisa Maza and Matt Bluestone had their hands full trying to keep things from getting out of control, but already they were starting to make talk about calling in riot police. A crowd of people, mostly middle aged males, were shouting at the tops of their lungs at the police, chanting and holding signs - half of which couldn't even spell "Gargoyles" correctly.

"These guys really don't like us." Captain Morgan was saying.

"Yeah." Elisa replied with a hard edge. "Grow a pair of wings and they'll like you even less."

"Personally I signed up to be a cop, not a politician." Matt sounded anything but complacent too. "What now, partner?"

Ropes appeared from the crowd, thrown around the ordinary statues lining the streets of a fairly old neighborhood. They were thrown around the statues, and the crowds pulled on them, and statues started coming down.

"Is vandalism reason enough to call in the national guard?" Captain Morgan put in.

"There are wounded people in there!" Matt observed with haste. "They're dropping the statues right on top of themselves! We gotta get 'em outta there!"

Elisa sneered. "THAT is reason enough for me. Call 'em."

Two days later. 

Helena Myers was tired. She'd been through three long meetings with her company and was ready to go home. However, she loved her daughter despite all the stupid things that girl had done, and was willing to make one last trip into Manhattan to find the coffee shop "The Last Mug". The directions she had writing down from the voicemail on her cellular phone were clear enough. She still had no idea what this Jeffrey person even looked like, but she imagined she would find out soon enough. The sun was down now, and so she was a little rushed to get done with this and get back to her hotel and sleep.

She finally found the shop, but before she could go in, a noise made her stop. She paused and looked around - and saw nothing. Strange, she thought, she could have sworn she had heard a bird or something rustle its wings nearby. The coffee shop was a nice little hole-in-the-wall place, and she immediately felt comfortable. Looking around, she saw a young man in his early twenties seated at a table, looking up at her. He stood, and extended a hand to her. "You must be Helena Myers."

"Yes, and you're Jeffrey Warman."

"Jeffrey is fine." He motioned for her to sit down by him. "Can I get you something to drink?"

"Oh no thank you - I just ate, and I'm a bit light headed.Where's Lacy?"

Jeffrey held his hand out on the table, indicating she should wait a moment. "She'll show up when she's ready. Tell me about yourself, Ms. Myers."

She sat. "Oh, just call me Helena. Lacy and I are descended from old Scottish royalty. If history had gone different, she might have been a princess in Scotland right now."

"Really? Interesting. Her father?"

"He was a bum - walked out on us when Lacy was seven, and we were never formally married. He started up a chop shop for some LA big crime organization, got arrested, wound up in jail, got AIDS, and died there."

"I... see. What do you do?"

"I'm an interior design consultant for a few big companies over in West Hollywood. If Lacy would clean herself up, she might be a part of the Western Hollywood nightlife."

Jeffrey nodded. "Pretty impressive."

"Mister Warman... Jeffrey. What is this all about, really?" Helena inquired, reading through the deception.

Jeffrey took a sip of his latest can of coke, and began. "Helena, Lacy has changed since you last saw her."

Helena was fairly quiet. "How much?" 

"She was offered a job someplace under false pretenses. The people who hired her really wanted to use her because she wouldn't be missed, for medical experimentation... stuff the government wouldn't let them do." Helena's mouth fell open slightly. She said nothing. "You must remember - no matter how much she has changed on the outside, she's still the same person on the inside."

Helena was baffled. "Is she... sick?"

"No, she's fine actually. She just looks different than when you last saw her. She's very afraid that you aren't going to like what you see."

"Have they caught the person who did it?"

"No, but I'm told they are trying."

"Can I see her?"

Jeffrey turned to the outer door where a figure was standing in the shadows. "Come on in, Lanara."

"Lanara...?" Helena was puzzled, turning in the direction Jeffrey indicated.

In the doorway the blue gargoyle was hanging it's wings around her shoulders, and slowly padding her way in the door. Her tail twitched back and forth a couple of times from anxiety. She watched her mother's eyes go from her feet all the way up her new body, her jaw hanging slack. Helena stepped quickly up out her chair, and began to scream in terror.

"STAY AWAY, MONSTER!!!" she shouted. "What kind of FREAK are you?!!!"

"It's me, momma!" Lanara replied in a loud voice, holding her paws out to attempt to calm the frightened woman. Lanara paused, a pained look in her eyes, and backed away, hanging her head.

"She's your daughter." Jeffrey said, slowly.

Helena's eyes widened a little when the recognition finally hit her what Jeffrey had said. "Lacy?"

Lanara lifted her head. "Momma?"

"What..." she turned to Jeffrey. "What IS she?"

"I'm a gargoyle." Lanara answered instead.

"A gargoyle? You mean one of those creatures who attacks people and turns to stone?"

"I don't attack people!I've been given a nice life! I'm not addicted to drugs anymore, I'm not drinking, I have my own place, and I've got opportunities - things to do with my life!"

"Remember, she's still the same person, Mrs. Myers." Jeffrey reminded her.

Recomposing herself, Helena slowly walked up to Lanara. Afraid to move, Lanara waited. Helena placed a hand on her shoulder, touching her new skin. Lanara unfolded her wings so that her mother could see them. She was a little startled at first, but she touched their leathery interior, looking at the blended colors. "How are we going to cure you?" she muttered, shaking her head.

"What?" Lanara asked, startled.

"It's going to take all the money I have in savings and maybe more, but I've got insurance. We'll get you fixed, don't worry."

"Fixed?"

"I'll find you the best plastic surgeons. They'll have to amputate these..."

"No!" Lanara protested.

"But... don't you want to be normal again?" Helena pressured.

"Mom... I like this body!" Lanara blurted out.

There was a sudden silence in the room. Jeffrey was smiling - surprised but pleased to finally hear her saying it. Helena was flabbergasted. "My girl was going to come back with me to LA! I was getting an injunction filed to have her live with me! She can't be a... demonspawn freak..."

Lanara's wings flew open, and she snarled. "I'm NOT a freak! I'm NOT demonspawn!"

"Gargoyles are just like anyone else, they just look different.." Jeffrey corrected.

"Lacy, be reasonable..."

"My name isn't Lacy - or Lana - it's Lanara now. I'm a gargoyle, and I like what I am!" she shouted with finality.

Helena's face turned red. "Lanara? Fine, if that's the way you want it..." Helena Reached into her briefcase and pulled out a few sheets of paper and tore them down the middle. "You aren't my child anymore."

With that, Helena Myers marched straight out the door.

Lanara's paws came up to her face, and she collapsed on the floor in a heap of wings, tail, and teenage girl - bawling. Jeffrey shook his head in frustration, knelt beside Lanara, and put his arms around her, trying to comfort her.


	5. Chocolate

Heirs to a Prophesy

**_Heirs to a Prophesy_**

By Tigris Euphrates, A Fan, and Cmage

Chapter Five: Chocolate Late March 2004 

Lanara's principle worry was Richard. Her reasons had to do with his transformation. It soon became apparent that Richard had been changed more than the other mutates like Lanara. He was somehow being deeply tortured in his new form.

"Uhhhhhhhhhh..." Richard groaned, entering the shop where Lanara now worked.

Lanara looked up from making Lattes and Frappacinos. "Richard! Are you doing alright?"

Richard shook his head; holding his hands up... and the Shark within him swam slowly to the surface... 

Lanara looked at him worriedly, touching his shoulder, a concerned look on her face. "I talked to Jeffrey earlier."

Richard looked up at Lanara. "Yes?" Richard felt the Shark in his mind, whispering to him...

**:::hungry... starving...:::**

Lanara went on. "He said something...I'm a little worried about."

Richard felt suddenly defensive and territorial of Lanara at the mention of Jeffrey's name. "What did he say?" **:::eat... rend... move... taste all:::**

"That he...has feelings for me. That he's...in love with me..." Lanara explained.

Richard looked at her, a snarl hiding behind his throat. **:::Jeffrey... find Jeffrey... devour him:::**

Lanara looked at him worriedly. "Are you alright, Richard?

"How do you feel about him?" Richard asked.

"I don't love him...he has too many problems telling me the truth. He's older than me anyway." Lanara explained.

The urge was pressing harder and harder on Richard. **:::EAT HIM DEVOUR HIM CRUNCH HIS BONES KILL THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM ALL:::** Richard stood up, and turned his eyes away from Lanara.

"Richard...you don't look too good..."

"I have to go...I have to go NOW..."

"Wait, Richard I..." Lanara began to say, but Richard had already gone.

Richard sprinted out the door, taking flight as soon as his wings cleared the doorway. He ran, trying to escape what boiled in his brain, but the Shark inside called him a coward, a fool, and haunts his dreams... dreams of blood, gore and an unending hunger.

"RICHARD!!!" Lanara shouted, running after him, and taking to the night winds as soon as her wings enabled her too.

**:::EAT... DEVOUR... CONSUME... FOOD, ALL ARE FOOD:::** Richard grabbed his head. "No!I am not like that!!" Richard yells, his words lost to the wind, sounding like a distant howl. The Shark within his brain screamed at him, forcing him to scan the area, looking for food. Richard crossed the Hudson into New Jersey, approaching a zoo. Lanara struggled to catch up with the gargoyle male. Richard saw the aquarium below and smiled... there would be lots of fish there... Richard dove down towards the zoo, coming to a rest inside and disappearing into the trees overlooking the pathways. Lanara followed, beating her wings cautiously, looking around for him. There were howls and roars as the predators awoke... and there was the crunching of wood coming from the west... from the aquarium.As Lanara approached, she saw a large banner proclaiming the newest exhibit - a great white shark... When she got to the aquarium, she saw the doors wrenched off their hinges.The inside was dark, a sound of water moving was heard. Lanara raced in, looking around desperately.

"RICHARD!!!!! What are you DOING?"

There was no answer.Her voice reflected off the walls hollowly...

...then an answer came.

"Lanara..." Richard moans. "...Get away from me...it's not safe..."

"Why?" Lanara asked, baffled. "What's the matter? Don't you trust me? I want to help!"

"I can't control it...I don't know if I can stop it..."

"What was it? What are you feeling?" She asked, following the voice...

The voice was coming up from above, over the large tank... Lanara looked up. Richard was curled back against the side... the Shark was screaming now, and he clapped his hands over his ears. It won't stop, its litany of bloodlust increasing in volume, throwing thoughts at him - images of people he knew ripped and chewed apart... and against his will the thoughts appealed to him... 

"I feel it inside me... gnawing at my brain... I don't..." Richard 's voice stops as he felt something moving under him... he moved to the control box that opened the tank and opens the top lid. Richard smiled, his heartless appetite growing stronger.

"What?!!! What's inside you?" The lid slides open, stopping with a bang. "What are you doing?"

Richard dove into the water, slipping in easily. Lanara climbed up to the edge on her knees, looking in. The water was dark... and the lip slippery... Lanara 's eyes searched the water. "RICHARD!!!" She screamed, and panicking. Something came up to see Lanara... but it wasn't Richard.The Great White rushed up at Lanara, trying to take a bite out of her, knocking her into the water as the shark thrashes its head around.

Lanara screamed - a blood curdling sound as she discovered that her wings weren't made for swimming or treading water... and she saw the huge shape circling her. Lanara felt disoriented - she couldn't tell which end was up - she didn't know how to swim!!! She thrashed about violently in terror, drawing the attention of the shark...She saw it coming closer, moving in for the kill... and then shoved to one side as something else rammed into it.The impact shoved up and to the side. Then Lanara saw Richard... charging into the great white, his teeth and claws deeply imbedded in the shark's hide.She watched as Richard voraciously attacked, and the shark tried to escape.Richard shredded the fish apart. That was when Lanara saw why he was afraid... because of the pure joy on his face.Richard LIKED doing this... 

Lanara fainted from lack of oxygen.

She awakened on the floor of the aquarium in a pool of seawater.Richard was close by...crouching on the ground, leaning against the Plexiglas wall of the tank.

Lanara wasn't breathing.

Richard reached over, feeling her pulse... remembering his CPR training from school and tried to revive Lanara. He counted out the rhythm - 1,2,3...breath...1,2,3..."Come on, luv...PLEASE breathe..."

Lanara sputtered and began to spit out water and a little blood, breathing... Richard pulled back a little... and washed himself off. He knows that Lanara saw what he was... and was afraid.

"Richard..." Lanara breathed, coughing. "Are you...alright...?"

"I'm... alright...for now."

"You...you scared me..." Lanara tried to sit up...but failed, laying back down. 

"Lanara, I'm so sorry..." Richard held her up in his arms.

Lanara hugged him close. "Abram agreed to teach me magic...maybe he can help."

"It's like a ravenous beast inside my head... I can't control it except by eating like a shark..."

Lanara sighed. "I swear I'll find some way..."

"The worst thing about it was I thought I might..." Richard went silent, unable to utter his darkest fear. "... that I might..."

"Might?" **:::eatchewdevourconsumebatheinherblood::: **"... hurt you."

Lanara pulled back a little... "But... I..." Lanara paused. She hadn't realized it until just then. "I'm in love with you."

Richard looked up at her... "Lanara... I love you, too.I think I've always loved you... but how can you love a monster like me, seeing what I am?"

"I'm not exactly a supermodel myself!" Lanara tried to laugh, but was too weak, referring to her gargoyle body.

Richard looked down. "Yes, but you don't get urges to eat people..." Richard sank to a sitting position. "What am I going to do...?" Richard looked up at Lanara, admitting utter defeat. "Please...help me."

"I'll do anything I can!" she whispered back, trying to encourage him. "...because I love you." she admitted again, feeling relieved to finally say it.

"We'd better get out of here... I don't want to be here to explain to the curator what happened to their shark."

"Can you carry me...I'm...too tired...?"

Richard smiled and picked her up, flying out the door as sirens were heard in the distance. The curator did come around, wanting to know where his shark went... and found there was nothing left.

Lanara fell asleep in Richard's arms. As they got back to Robbie's place in upstate New York, Richard sat Lanara gently on the bed and looked down at her.She looked so peaceful, so lovely... Richard sat on the bed next to her... vowing that he would die before he hurt her like that again... "I love you, Lanara.I will always love you."

Early April, 2004 

Amy Klein snuck into The Last Mug as Lanara was working. Amy was checking behind her to make sure no one she knew had seen her entered the shop, and sat down at the bar by Lanara, who finished serving a Latte to someone, and looked down at her. Lanara was dressed in her usual white halter-top and blue denim cutoffs that she'd resewn for her new body, overlaid by a green apron, with a mug on it and the initials LM. Lanara's wings had been expertly wrapped around her shoulder, and each of her three wing digits held them around her like her wings were a cape. "Can I get you something?" the female gargoyle inquired.

"Have you seen Benjamin recently?" Amy asked.

"Not since yesterday."

"What was he doing yesterday?"

"Jeffrey called him, to try and help me with some...problems I was having."

"Jeffrey? Jeffrey Warman? You know him? Is he here tonight?"

"Nope. He left a message with Robbie that he volunteered with an outreach hotline, and wouldn't be in for a few days." Lanara replied, pulling a sprite out from the fridge beneath the counter and setting it before the girl. "I should know him, Amy - he's in love with me."

Amy looked at the soda and scowled. "Can't I have something with ice cream in it? Why, aren't you in love with him too?"

Lanara smiled a little. "You have my kind of taste in desserts." Lanara replaced the soda in the fridge, and began to gather various implements and ingredients and mix them. When she finished, she slid a Banana Split in front of the girl and smiled."While I do love him, I have to be realistic.I'm in love with Richard. Jeffery and I...could never be more than friends. Besides, Richard is totally honest with me, and Jeffrey has a problem telling me the whole truth."

"I still would have taken Jeffrey." 

"I'm not a human anymore, I've accepted that. Jeffrey is not a gargoyle, and has no wish to be." Lanara shrugged, washing a few dishes in the basin. "Though I admit I liked it when I fit in."

"I'd rather have people respect me, like you."

"What makes you think anyone respects me? I mean, look at me! I'm a freak!"

"You have a claws! Fangs! Wings! You can beat up Volkswagens!" the girl laughed. "Nobody tells you what to do."

"Perhaps, but there are plenty who want me dead. Yet, for some reason, I wouldn't want to be anything else, now."

"I liked it when I got to be a gargoyle, but Benjamin made me change back."

Lanara didn't let it show, but many light bulbs suddenly clicked on in her brain. "So, you would be Amy Klein then. Benjamin doesn't like you hanging around us 'evil' gargoyles, and that's why you're so worried if I had seen him." Amy stammered a bit, but decided to recover gracefully by not saying anything. "I'm curious. Someone else turned me into a gargoyle by force. Did they do the same to you?"

"No, I did it."

Lanara's eyes opened wide. "How?"

"I have this stuff, when you give it a piece of what you want to become, and then you eat it and throw it back up again." She answered, pulling out a plastic Zip-Lock bag full of some kind of disgusting brown goo that looked vaguely like chocolate.

"May I borrow it?"

"Why?" Amy asked with suspicion.

"I have this friend... " Lanara explained. "The society did something nasty to him, and he's having a lot of cravings he can't control.I'm thinking this might be able to help him."

"That...goo will reform itself into a bar once you give it a hair, a fingernail, or something of the person who's DNA will be used."

Lanara nodded. "How does it work?"

"Can I have one of you hairs?"

Puzzled, Lanara plucked out a single strand of her long ebony brown hair and handed it to the girl, a little suspicious. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to become you! Like your twin!"

"Why?" Lanara pressured, her voice darkening.

"Because I'm sick of people telling ME what to do! I can take care of myself!"

"Shouldn't you ask me first, Amy?"

Amy blinked. "Why?"

"Because that hair is a part of my body. President Clinton signed a law a few years ago saying it's illegal to clone a person, and that's what you're saying you're about to do. Maybe I don't want a clone of me running around."

"Well... " Amy stammered, looking at the hair. "What if I combine it with one of my hairs? That would make me a hybrid of me and you. That way no one will recognize me and I'll get to be a gargoyle, but I won't look like you either.

Lanara nodded. "I like that idea. It combines the DNA of the two strands? What about gender?" Lanara had a nasty vision in her head of two strands of male DNA combining, to wind up with both X's in the final product to produce a female.

"As long as both are the same gender, you'll end up with the same gender at the end."

"Good thinking." Lanara nodded.

Amy striped her clothes off down to her bra and panties, folded them, and gave them to Lanara, who stashed them under the counter. Lanara looked up to make sure none of the other patrons noticed, and thanks to the magic of the place, none had. Taking one of her own hairs, Lanara watched Amy take one of her own hairs, and entwine it with Lanara's. As Lanara continued to think about the possibilities of helping Richard, Amy dropped the combined hairs into the bag with the goo in it. A puff of steam issued out of the bag, and the goo coagulated into something the size and shape of a chocolate bar. 

Amy ate it.

It took a few moments, but slowly Amy Klein's hands and feet painlessly transformed into claws and fetlocks. Her skin became light blue, like Demona's, and her hair became ebony brown like Lanara's.A small growl issued from Amy's throat as her brow began to sport a pair horns that resembled Angela's, long elfin ears, little spikes on all her joints, and a youthful tail issued from one foot hole of her panties. Lastly, outside the straps of her bra, the skin there rippled and sprouted a pair of large, adolescent blue wings with the chromatic purple and teal interior and with three little digits at their apex.

Lanara smiled at the new gargoyle girl who stood in front of her. Amy looked hardly a year younger than herself, like a younger sister.

"So now I have a sister. Mom will have a field day."

Amy turned, grabbing the Zip-Lock bag, and began to yack and hurl into it. Lanara winced. "Ewwww... " Lanara grabbed some napkins and handed them to her new sister. As Amy wiped her face, Lanara noted to herself that she still looked a little like the human Amy, but Lanara saw her own, new gargoyle face there too. The resemblance was a little disturbing to her, but she kept it under control. 

Lanara took the bag of goo, sealed it, and placed it in a pouch in her belt. "Well sis, you still remember how to glide?"

Amy tested her new wings experimentally once or twice. "I did well enough at it before."

Lanara untied her apron, and folded it, placing it under the counter. "Then let's see how good you are."

Lanara leapt up to the stonework about the door and began to climb the front of the building.Amy bunched her legs together and leapt up, grabbing hold of the stone. Once up the to the top, Lanara offered a paw to her, but Amy declined. "I can do it."

"Then let's see if you can catch me, sis." Lanara smiled, diving neatly into an oncoming breeze. Startled, Amy was after her in a bound. Neatly slicing through the air like a knife through water. Lanara tacked sideways, and between two buildings. When Amy followed, Lanara was nowhere to be seen. Lanara then tackled her new sister from above, and they came to a sudden halt on a rooftop a few meters below, and on the other side of the street.

"If this were real, you'd be dead by now." Lanara scowled, her eyes glowing. She turned and leapt into the wind again. "Come on."

Amy took her reprimand, dusted herself off, and followed.

Arriving at the house by the sea, Lanara landed neatly, folded her wings around her, and walked in a doorway, entering a special code. When done, the positions of the numbers on the keypad vanished and reappeared in different positions. "New kind of lock." Lanara explained. "Courtesy of Xanatos's security people."

"You'll help keep my secret, right?" Amy asked.

"Amy, you know I HATE lying." She growled a little to herself. "But I have to if I want to help Richard."

"You make it sound like I blackmailed you."

"No, but have me backed into a corner. There's a difference."

Amy wasn't sure she understood.

Lanara went through her bag and handed the other a few sports bras of different sizes and colors from Robbie's collection, and a pair of Lanara's modified denim cutoffs. Amy stripped down to her panties, and pulled the bits of clothes on. Meantime, Lanara reached into a small lockbox under the bed with her name written on it, and twisted the dial a few times. She placed the bag of goo inside, and drew out a small laser pistol.

"Here sis, you're defending yourself now - I have another. Remember two things. Gargoyles protect their community, and we also protect each other. Secondly, you might want to pick a new name, or else Kanthara or one of the others might find you out."

"I'll think about it." Amy nodded. She looked up at the ceiling, with a strange expression on her face. "What's that? I'm feeling... "

"The sun." Lanara nodded, locking the safe again, and striking a fearsome pose. "The sun is rising - gargoyles can feel it coming. Just wait."

Amy waited for a few more seconds, until she felt a warm sensation flush throughout her body, and felt it stiffen. Amy Klein had turned to stone for the very first time.

Elsewhere in Manhattan 

"Good morning, Demona."

Demona turned, barely finished with her transformation only to find her haven invaded.She drew her blade and turned to face the intruder."Who are you?How did you get past my security?"

"I have a more pressing question for you, Demona.What is your goal in life?"

"I do not answer questions from unwanted intruders."Demona tried to take a step forward, but couldn't.She looked down to find her feet mired in her own floor."What... ?!"

"I have a proposition for you, Demona.I know well your true desires, and I can help you in ways you can't possibly understand."

"And why would you help me?What do you want in return?"

The woman stood up, coming into full view."Because I want what you want.Mankind, these worthless worms not worthy of protection, have raped and pillaged this planet, destroyed its beauty, polluted what resources are left.They need to be destroyed." As she spoke, her words became subtly more vicious."But to do that, we need to remove the obstacles in our way.Not only the humans must be destroyed, but also their misguided protectors, like other gargoyles and the Seelie Court.Once they are gone, the humans will be defenseless."

"And I'll be the last gargoyle on Earth, I take it?"

"Until we breed some more, of course.We'll still have enough genetic supplies to clone those we fought; only they would learn how to take care of the world...not some parasitic bipeds.They'll think like we do."

Demona paused.The idea had merit."You're talking about challenging Oberon's Children.You'll need a lot more than just the two of us to stop them."

The intruder smiled."I will have an army numbering in the quadrillions.I have developed a virus that resists magical treatment, and a foolproof way of distributing the virus."

"If you have such resources, why do you want my help?" Demona asked suspiciously."Surely someone of your capabilities could do all this by yourself."

"I have a problem.It concerns a couple of recent developments that I have found...troublesome.I want them taken care of before I can proceed with my plans.Two people, gargoyles, in fact.A gargoyle travesty named Richard...and Lanara."

Demona's eyes glowed in hatred."You don't say... "

"Do I have your attention now?"

"As well as my feet.But I'll listen."

A chair pulled itself from its resting place by the table and moved under the dark woman as she sat down. "Are you acquainted with Lanara?"

"I've been watching her as how she associates with my daughter."Demona snarled, "She is an unholy spawn of my daughter's blood, and I will have her destroyed utterly!"

"Consider my words.Would it truly be satisfying to simply kill her?Wouldn't it soothe your mind to ruin her, humiliate her, drive her face into the dirt BEFORE killing her?"

Demona sat back and crossed her arms."What did you have in mind?"

"I need to have Richard destroyed, but I cannot act directly.If I act directly, I will alert Oberon's brood.I need your assistance if we are to succeed."

"Go on, stranger. I'm listening."

"I have agencies currently at work securing the young miss, but Richard is much more...difficult.He has been altered with an addition of...SHARK DNA."The intruder shuddered.

"I can handle him.Secure Lanara and Richard will inevitably follow."

"Here are the terms of our agreement.You will have access to resources above and beyond even yours, and access to information you once believed unavailable.In return, you will serve me without question or challenge, and I shall reward you with great power in the New Order, once the cancer of humanity has been cured completely."

"I serve no one, crone," Demona said levelly.

"Well, then, there is the alternative."The intruder's smile flickered and Demona felt her feet sink into the floor.Demona looked down in shock and pulls on her legs, but not even her considerable strength enabled her to pull free of the mire that was once solid concrete.She struggled, snarling, trying to use her own magic to resist.The intruder didn't even rise, but Demona's magical attempts to stop herself proved fruitless as the concrete of the floor began to swallow her."Stone you may have been once, and stone you can be again."

'What do you want?!!!'

"I thought I made that clear; Unquestioning obedience and fealty to me.Swear it...or the next person who comes into this room will be trotting upon your face."

As a credit to her resistance, Demona waited until the floor was up to her chest before saying with a grudging snarl, "I will do as you say, so long as our goals remain mutual."

"Our goals will be the same...but you will serve me no matter what."The intruder smiled as the floor absorbed Demona's shoulders.The smile was serene, confident...the smile of a conqueror.

Almost at the last second, Demona stops swearing, just long enough to say, "Very well, you have my oath of fealty!"

The intruder's smile broadened and Demona found herself instantly freed from the floor."It's a pleasure and an honor to work with someone so reasonable."Demona snarled, brushing off her arms to remove the pins-and-needles feeling from them."Now, Demona, this is a crucial time.Things are moving very quickly now, and we have a lot to do.There is a place out in the far reaches of the New York forests where you will be able to act with impunity.A castle of my own design, created as a lark for a rich industrialist, now re-made into a fortress.Here, you may act without you or your own organization being implicated in its use."

Demona nodded."What kind of...equipment? Anything...for the humiliation of the human girl?"She felt an evil smile grow on her face.

"I made my own additions to the 'rec room' of the place.Removed the paltry things like the pool table and such, put in more useful items... I'm sure you'll approve."

Demona's small smile became a large smile. "I can hardly wait.I suspect we already think alike."

"All the better for our continued partnership.After all, we have a world to save, Demona.These insects are raping and killing Mother Earth.This cannot be tolerated."

"We have a deal, then."

"That we do.We are sisters in this, you and I.And I feel we both already know how tolerant the other is about being disappointed."The intruder turns and fades away, leaving a sickly-sweet smell behind...and a small, leather bound book.Demona picked it up and opened it, finding information written in flowing script about the castle, the men and women guarding it, the technological defenses, layout...every minute detail about the castle Demona could ever wish to know.Demona found herself impressed despite her original misgivings about dealing with someone as committed as her new ally."Well, well...she certainly does her homework.Very well, my liege...I thank you for giving me a true calling to follow.But if you betray that calling, I shall destroy you."

Later that month 

Richard looked down at the water below the pier, and then back up at Lanara. "Ready to do some fishing?"

Lanara folded her wings and looked down at the water. "Last time I was out here I was thrown in." she mused, frowning. "It was cold."

"Well, nobody's going to be throwing anybody in tonight." Richard reassured her. He handed the girl a pole and took one of his own. "I've got to get used to doing it the old fashioned way again."

Lanara smiled and nodded. "Nothing's ever really cold to me anymore, so I'm not worried. I'm just a little scared to get near water...since... "

Richard nodded in understanding. "Maybe if I catch fish this way, it'll keep my shark's instincts under control."

Jeffrey watched the two gargoyles a little dubiously. "Do you really expect to catch something?"

"It's worth a short." Lanara offered.

"Well, this is New York." Jeffrey contributed. "You might pull out a fish with three eyes."

Lanara laughed. "How true."

Richard only shrugged. "Besides, fishing isn't just to catch anything...it's to relax, reflect, and calm oneself."

Jeffrey made a noise. "The docks in the middle of the night are not the place I would have chosen."

"Nobody comes here. It's quiet." Lanara pointed out. "I just wish my father had taught me to fish and things when I was little."

"I suppose... " Jeffrey acquiesced.

Lanara motioned for him to sit down, and Richard made room for him. He sat down on the other side on Lanara. Something made Lanara's ears twitch, and her head swiveled as she looked around them..."Richard...did you hear something?"

Richard turned and looked as a group of eight men started walking towards them, holding rifles. "If it's not one thing, it's another... " he muttered to himself.

"This...is not good." Jeffrey observed numbly.

"We're surrounded!" Lanara immediately began to take stock of the situation. Lanara noted that the peer was too close to the water. "No room to get any height for gliding. HIT 'EM!"

Richard did - moving into a crouching run. At this point Jeffrey seriously considered jumping off the pier. Lanara snarled, ready to jump into the fray. Richard's claws and teeth found flesh, and he scattered the attackers as gunshots began to ring out. He pushed some off into the water, others he hurled away like Frisbees, but the ones he never saw were the ones coming up to the pier through the water in scuba gear. Lanara was ready to spring when she suddenly felt a jab in her hip. Richard pounded his way through the men, his fists breaking bones and rupturing organs. It wasn't until the fight was over that he noticed that Lanara was nowhere to be seen. Richard searched the pier madly, looking around wildly. "LANARA!!!" he bellowed.

Jeffrey cowered nervously. "She's gone."

"No!!!" Richard exclaimed, resisting the urge to tell Jeffrey what a worthless waste of blood he was, because he knew - deep down - that Jeffrey was not a fighter and that Richard's rage was at those who took Lanara from him, not at Jeffrey. Frustrated, Richard turned and leapt into the water, training his sense of smell to pick up Lanara's scent. Jeffrey felt like he was being watched.

Meanwhile, perched on a nearby rooftop, a dark shadow waited. She had watched the whole exchange go down, and was now smiling with satisfaction.


	6. Enslavement

**_Heirs to a Prophesy_**

By Tigris Euphrates (tigris@sbcglobal.net) and Cmage (c__mage@hotmail.com)

Chapter Six: Enslavement 

            Lanara awoke in a daze, slowly taking stock of herself. Once every part of her came back to life, she learned just how much pain she was in. "Oooooh... " she groaned. "How do I always end up like this?" She took stock of her situation. She was in a room by the way the sounds reverberated. Her wrists and legs were shackled. She pulled on them - trying to break them like she had when she had been captured by the society, but it was no use. These shackles were different somehow - there was no way she could break them. The shackles around her wrists were on a chain to the wall. Her feet were shackled directly to the floor. She was too short for the device it seemed so the shackles around her wrists were supporting her whole body weight, and they hurt. Her wrists, joints, and paws felt like flames were lapping at them.

            A shifting noise in the room perked Lanara's ear. The room was dark, but being a gargoyle, her eyes saw warmth in the corner, facing her. It was female, and appeared to have wings. The only female gargoyles she knew were Kanthara, Robbie, and Angela. The wings were too proportionate to be Robbie. "Kanthara? Angela?"

            The figure threw a switch on the wall, and light poured into the room - momentarily blinding Lanara. "None of the above."

            Lanara's eyes adjusted to the bright lights. The source of them was over her head, shining straight down on her. Beyond the light she could see a blue female gargoyle, with a shock of flame red hair. She reminded Lanara of Angela - and of the gargoyle Lanara saw in the mirror. Who WAS this? Her blue colored skin was much lighter blue than hers. She was smiling. More than that - she looked insane - and evil. She had never seen that look on a gargoyle's face before. It made her skin crawl.

            Lanara gasped. "Who are YOU?"

            "Oh be patient, young human. You'll find out soon enough. You'll find out everything, right before you die."

            Lanara's eyebrows furrowed. "Why do you want to kill me?"

            "Humanity is a poison that must be purged from this earth. You desecrate me and my daughter."

            "Desecrate? How? What makes you think I have anything to do with humans?"

            "Don't play me for a fool, youngling. I've been watching you at the castle. There are passages in that castle only I know about. Your name was Lacy Myers, but called yourself Lana on the street. You are friends with the other human-changelings Kanthara, Robbie, and Richard. In fact...  you recently told Kanthara and Angela you were in love with Richard."

            Lanara's jaw was slack. "You heard - all of that?"

            "A real gargoyle is so much more cunning than you humans are. I know ages of things you will never know!"

            "Strange. If you know so much, how is it you can't see what's right in front of your face! I'm not a human!"

            "I also know you were changed, using my daughter's blood. You are a human, violating the very soul of me and my child."

            Lanara felt stunned. This woman was...  Angela's mother! Oh shit...  Lanara suddenly realized the depth of the danger she was in. She knew this woman was capable of a lot, being a gargoyle, and knowing how to tie down a gargoyle so that she couldn't get free. What else could she do?

            Then another thought struck Lanara. This gargoyle...  is my grandmother! And she hardly looks older than Goliath!

            The other gargoyle saw the look of terror than was registering on Lanara's face, and smiled again. She produced a small black remote-like device from her pocket. "This device controls your shackles. All I have to do is press this button, which is connected to the van degraff generator - capable of pouring hundreds of volts through your body. If I keep it on for long enough, you'll die. That would be too easy. I'm going to let you slowly roast to death, and I assure you the amperage will assure your death is quite painful. There are three settings. We'll start at two hundred volts; go up five hundred, and then a thousand. Not even a TRUE gargoyle can withstand that without dying."

            "Why? Why do this?" Lanara asked, droplets of sweat forming on her brow.

            "I'm going to make you pay. PAY for desecrating my body and my daughter's - for brainwashing her into actually thinking you're her friend!"

            "She did that on her own!"

            Demona's face twisted into anger, and she raised the remote, pressing the first button. Lanara sudden felt her body explode in agony. It was different than her transformation, which was a slow piercing agony; this was sudden, hot, and excruciating. She screamed instantly, every part of her body on fire. She wished she could faint, sleep, or turn to stone - she screamed until her throat hurt. Her eyes felt like they were about to explode out of her face. Her tail thrashed uselessly against the floor, the muscles in her body flinching spasmodically.

            Mercifully, Demona pressed the shutoff button on the remote. Lanara knew she smelled burned hair. Her body still spasmed occasionally, and could see the steam rising off her skin as all moisture on the surface of her skin had been instantly turned to vapor.

            "Now you have learned your first lesson."

            "What do you want?" she bawled, tears running down her cheeks. "You haven't even asked me any questions."

            "There is nothing you could tell me."

            "Then finish me. Just finish me!"

            "Then your friend would not come."

            Lanara's comprehension dawned. "Richard?" She was nothing more than bait. "This was all to lure him here, wasn't it?"

            "Finally your brain works. It is so much easier to destroy two of you at once, while I have leverage over the other. You are easy leverage."

            Lanara swore once more. Someday, she would be stronger - faster. She would learn everything she could. She was sick of being the weak one. Her eyes widened as the second button went down. Lanara was barely conscious. She couldn't think about the pain - her suffering was too intense. When it was finally let up an eternity later, her screams once again fell into sobs.

            "What a weak, pitiful thing you are. To think you could possibly understand what it means to be a true gargoyle."

            In a voice so weak she could barely force the words out she spoke her final words. "I know the one thing that makes a gargoyle who she is. I know how to protect the ones I love. Have you thought about how hurt Angela will feel when she hears you murdered me?"

            "SILENCE, YOU FOOL!!!" Demona exclaimed, and down went the third button.

            Lanara knew she was dying. She could feel it. Her screaming voice was no longer connected to her, and she felt detached, floating away from her body. She felt strangely at peace with the idea, a blessed release from so much agony and suffering.

            Then something happened. Lanara couldn't understand anything going on, but the light had gone out, and the machine had stopped. Demona scowled, picking up a weapon. "I'll be right back." A metal door closed. Lanara didn't understand what was happening, all she knew was she was moving backward, away from herself. I'm not going back, am I? A bright light suddenly filled her senses, and she turned. The sun! She slowly moved toward it...  ... but stopped. A single thought filled her mind. Richard.

            Richard looked up from the wires he had just bitten in half, and looked up at the parapets of the little upstate retreat, which the ransom note had specified. He launched himself into the air, and became one with the night - his black skin making him a shadow in the mid-night darkness.

            Pulling out a small two-way radio, Richard contacted Jeffrey. "Can you hear me?"

            "Yes." He replied as he struggled to sneak into the building in the dark - hoping Richard would distract whatever dangers lay within.

            "Find Lanara. Whoever took her will see me as a more serious threat. If I can draw their fire, you can get in and free her. Be careful."

            "I'm too scared not to be." He replied, and the radios went silent. In the dark, Jeffrey began to mutter to himself, "I am NOT a commando...  not a commando... "

            Richard closed the connection and turned upwards, aiming for one of the perimeter guns, ripping it from its moorings and throwing it to the ground below. He moved immediately as the other guns turned to track him in. By the time the guns had moved into firing position, he was gone again.

            Inside, Demona looked at her screens. The sensor readings were confusing. She was getting damage reports, but the sensors and many of the other systems were all on emergency power now. It looked as if the guns and other defenses were being taken out systematically. Demona gritted her teeth as she realized that she was now effectively blind to something that was as elusive as quicksilver, and powerful enough to rend metal - another gargoyle. Warning bells began to sound as guards failed to report in.

            Demona cocked her laser gun, and listened to it whine as it's capacitors charged. "It's about time."

            Jeffrey Warman spotted Demona, but hid before he was seen. She was talking on a radio now, shouting "Come in, team two? He's out there, somewhere. Move in!"

            Jeffrey wasted no time in sneaking away and rounding a corner into another room that just happened to contain the unconscious form of Lanara - chained to the wall.

            Richard had just added another group of human mercenaries to the list of casualties when he heard a voice, shouting on their radios, saying "Team two? Come in!!!"

            Richard picked up one of the radios. "Team two won't be answering anything but the doorbell in hell. As soon as I finish with my...  meal...  I'll come right in and introduce myself properly."

            "You won't live to see it." Demona's voice replied. The radio registered the sound of a crack then static as Richard crushed the radio.

            Jeffrey discovered a small remote control on a table by the wall. The lights were out, so he couldn't see much. He stabbed at one button, and found that nothing happened. It was probably because the power was out, he deduced, and stabbed at another button. This produced more results, as he heard the shackles around the unconscious Lanara's wrists and ankles release. Jeffrey quickly dragged Lanara into a nearby utility closet. After that was done, Jeffrey collapsed next to her, shivering with the fright he hadn't let himself feel till that moment.

            Demona stalked down a hallway, searching the darkness for any trace of heat. Richard watched her approach, silently from the rafters. "You won't survive this, human." Demona said aloud. She knew he was there somewhere - she could feel his eyes on her. Unfortunately, Richard notes, Demona was too much of a two-dimensional thinker, and never thought to look up. Richard waited for her, muscles tensed.

            Richard dropped behind her, growling angrily. "BET YOU ALWAYS KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING LIKE ME WAITING IN THE DARK FOR YOU... "

            "You flatter yourself." Demona replied, and fired in Richard's direction, down an empty hallway.

            "You missed." Richard replied, standing directly behind Demona.

            "Enough GAMES!" Demona snarled, firing again.

            Then Richard was in her face. The shot went wild, impacting harmlessly against the wall as a thick black claw appeared in Demona's face, attached to a night-black gargoyle.  "You must be Demona." He stated flatly. "I've heard a great deal about you. Ruthless, dangerous, conniving, beautiful...  so far though you're only batting a point-seven-five in my book. Now TELL me where Lanara is!"

            Demona tried to fire again, but found her weapon destroyed. She attacked Richard be hand. "You forgot deadly. Search if you want - you will not find her before you die."

            Richard's sense of smell was flooding his brain with the wretched scent of burned hair. Could it be he also smelled an ever-so-faint trace of Lanara's lavender perfume? "What have you done to her, witch?"

            Demona laughed, lunging at him again. "Oh, she's...  hanging around."

            "Oh...  cute. Humor." Richard moved forward suddenly, leaving a gash across her extended arm. Richard smiled as he realized that there was an easier way to find Lanara. "Well, Demona - it's been LOTS of jollies playing with you - but I'm going to get Lanara now that I know where she is." He taunted her, and vanished like smoke in the wind. Demona, confused now, went over to the room where Lanara was kept, only to find Lanara was no longer there. That was when the queen of gargoyles was given a drop-kick to her head, hard. "Thanks for leading me to her, Demona." Richard smiled.

            Demona picked herself up from the floor, moving closer. "Led you to her? Where is she then? Not here, you fool - look around."

            Richard waited until Demona got herself close enough to Richard for him to kiss her. "I have friends, Demona - that's something I guess you'll never understand." Richard slipped one hand into his belt, a small action Demona never saw as her eyes were glued on the face that she HATED. There was a popping sound just before Demona's enraged expression melted and she crinkled to the floor with a tranquilizer dart protruding from her middle. "In a straight fight you would have won, Demona." Richard admitted, tossing the tranquilizer gun off to one side. It had been loaded with enough drugs to take down an elephant. "But I'm sorry, luv - there ain't no Marcus of Queensbury rules here. This isn't exactly the Olympics."

            Richard followed Lanara's scent, which was very strong here and found her and Jeffrey huddled in the closet. Carrying Lanara, they made a quick escape together.

            Lanara felt the warmth of the sun on her skin like she hadn't known in all the weeks since her change. It's light held old friends, dead and gone. She longed to touch them, and to walk toward the light.

            "Lanara, No!" shouted a voice. "Don't give up on me yet!" It was Richard's voice, Lanara realized. She paused. "Oh, by HARRY what did Demona do to you? Hang on, Lanara! Come back to me!"

            Lanara called out his name, anxious and excited. "RICHARD!!!"

            At the house they shared by the sea, Richard put cold packs on Lanara's burns and bandaged them. She was alive, but unconscious. As the sun rose, it captured a perfect pose of Richard's concern for Lanara, etched in his face. Even the greatest sculptor could not capture it's great intensity, for nature is the master sculptress.

The following night

            "I'm going to do it." Richard concluded.

            "Are you sure? If so, we can have it ready by tomorrow." Lanara reassured him as she lay in bed, recovering a little from the past day's encounter.

            "I've already nearly killed you twice this week - both because I did things that could have been prevented if not for this uncontrollable bloodlust." Richard explained. "I don't know what might happen next, and whatever it is I can't have it on my conscious."

            Lanara nodded. "That makes sense to me."

            Lanara and Amy awoke the following evening with their usual fanfare. Amy reacted with a little surprise but recovered quickly and she brushed the bits of dust from her body. Lanara commenced immediately searching through Richard's old clothes, searching for something - anything that used to be a part of his body before he was changed. She was quickly becoming frustrated. "DAMN! Richard sure was fastidious!!!" However, it was then that Lanara found a hairbrush of Richard's - with hairs still stuck in it. "Ah hah!" she exclaimed.

            Amy nodded. "Now we just need the hair of a male gargoyle, to mix."

            "Leave that to me. I'll meet you back at the coffee shop in thirty minutes."

            When Amy Klein saw Lanara enter The Last Mug later that night, Lanara carried three bags under her arm. One was the bag of that disgusting brown regurgitated goo, and two small bags filled with hairs - one labeled "Richard" and the other labeled "Goliath". Luckily for Amy, Jeffrey was still away at his new job, and luckily for Lanara, Richard was already there by the bar eating fresh shrimp by the mouthful.

            "They had a great buy down on the wharf." He explained. "I missed you." He said tenderly, as her hugged her.

            "I missed you too." She replied.

            "Is this it?" Richard asked, dubiously.

            "Yep."

            Richard's jaw was slack as the two girls began to work like cooks at the bar. Amy pulled out the steel pan, and dumped the goo out of the bag and into the pan. Lanara twisted two hairs from different bags together, and when Amy was done, dropped the hairs into the pan. With a puff of steam, the goo coagulated into a bar once more. Richard stripped down to just his underpants.

            Lanara smiled, and handed the bar to Richard. "Hungry still?"

            "STILL?" he chortled humorlessly, and then added.

            "I say do like the Little Tea Cake said: 'Eat Me'." Lanara smiled.

            Richard looked at Lanara and the bar dubiously for several seconds before popping it in his mouth. "I don't feel any taller." Amy and Lanara watched, but at first nothing seemed to happen. Then, slowly, his form began to shimmer and change. His hair grew long and curly, lightening in shade to blonde. His skin tone lightened to lavender, with tall shapely legs with filled out and delicate curves, and large, firm breasts with dark lavender areolas.

            Had they been cartoons, Lanara and Amy's jaws would hit the floor like anvils.

            Richard hacked and choked on the substance he had eaten, and vomited it back up, into the pan. Richard saw the way the others were looking at him. "What?!!!" His voice had risen nearly a fifth step, and had a more melodic cadence. He touched his throat for a moment. "That's not my voice... " Lanara and Amy watched, eyes wide and stunned as Richard's hands followed his body's new curves straight to his crotch.

            "YYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Richard screamed in terror, running for the 'Men's' room.  "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!!! YOU'VE TURNED ME INTO BLOODY LARA CROFT!!!" Lanara and Amy looked at each other, too stunned for words. "I LOOK LIKE MY OLD GIRLFRIEND! YOLANDA!"

            Lanara and Amy exchanged the most forlorn look possible. "Oh SHIT." Lanara cursed. "She didn't, by any chance, have curly blonde hair and big breasts?" Lanara's brain was racing. She'd gotten one hair from Goliath himself, so she KNEW that was not the problem, which only left... 

            Lanara slapped her forehead with one paw. "Richard's hairbrush!" she exclaimed.

            "It had to be." Amy nodded.

            "What about it?!!!" Richard demanded, having overhead.

            "How did a hair from Yolanda get in YOUR hairbrush?" Amy asked.

            "She used to borrow it. I've never gotten around to cleaning it out since I was changed." Richard scowled. "Why does it matter, Lanara?"

            "I hope you've got some more spares at the apartment." Amy looked at Lanara pleadingly. Lanara gathered up the brown substance quickly into it's bag.

            "HIYA KID!" Came Robbie's voice from the doorway. Lanara turned to see her other roommate standing there, with her boyfriend Marcus. Lanara felt Robbie's hand on her shoulder. "Who are your new friends?"

            Lanara looked at Richard and Amy, pleadingly. "This is a new sister, and...  Richard."

            Marcus spoke up softly. "Uhhh...  correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't 'Richard' a boy's name?"

            Richard grumbled to herself. "It is. I'm going to have to change that."

            "Why?" Marcus asked in confusion. "Weren't you born a gargoyle?"

            Richard looked at Lanara. Marcus thought Richard used to be a human girl. "No, Marcus - I was not born a GIRL."

            Robbie's eyes widened, and she began to laugh. "You're Lanara's boyfriend!"

            Lanara paled. "It was an accident."

            "I figured that out already, kid. Unless, of course... " she laughed some more, "... your a lesbian and haven't told me!"

            Lanara blushed furiously at this statement, and walked right out of the coffee shop. Amy and Richard follow her. Robbie looked momentarily concerned, but did not follow.

            "What are you doing?" Amy was asking.

            "Fixing things." She said, climbing the building.

            "No Lanara! What if it goes wrong again?" Amy protested.

            "I didn't mean that problem." Lanara sighed, breaking into a glide. "Richard, I know your cravings are gone, but I hope you can live this way until we can fix this."

            "How am I supposed to get used to THIS?" he exclaimed, grabbing her breasts, and hefting them with her paws for effect. Lanara blushed.

            "Just try not to hit them with you arms or on doors, poles, and things. Then you'll never know they're there." Amy observed.

            "Whatever!" Richard retorted.

            "Hope and pray you never have to have a mammogram. Or a Gyno. Or a Papsmear. DAMN! Now I have to see about getting more Tampons in the house... " Lanara thought the last part to herself and had not intended Richard to overhear. However, he heard.

            "TAMPONS?" Richard's jaw fell.

            Richard held up the small cardboard tube like it was a worm. It was pink and had the word "Tampax" on it.

            "Richard, you are a girl now." Amy observed. "You have to be prepared." She had chosen to simply be addressed as 'Sister', like in the old Gargoyle tradition. It stuck, and Richard and Lanara used it like a name for her.

            "Please, God... " the former male muttered. "Please let this particular transformation right itself SOON... "

            Lanara was busy explaining the ends and outs of menstruation to her feminized boyfriend. "We don't know when you're going to start cycling, so don't risk ruining your clothes. Do you KNOW how to use these? Now is the time to ask. How much did...  Yolanda show you?"

            "Nothing - I haven't the foggiest."

            Lanara physically dragged Richard into the bathroom. "Undress." She instructed. Sister followed them, and closed the door behind them. She-Richard slowly undressed, Lanara and Richard doing the same to make her feel less exposed. Lanara had the thought that whoever Yolanda was, she was really well endowed. "Place one foot on the toilet seat. Insert it like this, pull back on the tube, and it leaves the string hanging out like this." Lanara demonstrated on herself. "If it's uncomfortable, something's wrong - take it out and get a new one."

            Sister raised an eyebrow. "Do our cycles work like humans?"

            "Mine has since I was changed. Thankfully that DIDN'T change - I don't know what I would have done if I had been changed into something totally unfamiliar. My periods have been regular - thankfully." Lanara mused.

            "What if Richard gets pregnant? That'd be really weird... " sister muttered. She-Richard gulped at the thought. "... and creepy."

            Lanara turned back to Richard, who was fiddling with the carboard tube in her new genitals. "I'm sorry if I'm laying this all out a bit thick right now, but I don't know what else to do!" Lanara explained. "I can't see Richard spreading her legs anytime soon, fortunately."

            She-Richard did not look up. "It's alright...  it's...  just a lot to get used to all at once."

            Lanara sighed, holding her head in frustration. Sister held her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

            "Just feeling...  guilty. This is my fault. I got too anxious and wasn't thinking."

            "It's my fault. I shouldn't have done this in the first place." Sister began blaming herself.

            "I think we just had a wrong hair in the batch, that's all." Lanara sighed. "If Richard wants to try again with the chocolate, leave me out of it - I still feel too guilty."

            "Look, you two." She-Richard pointed out. "I chose this too...  nobody crammed that candy bar down my throat."

            "Oh now don't YOU start too... " Lanara protested.

            She-Richard began to wince a little as Lanara began to try bras on Richard for size. Richard was no very busty, and finding one that fit her in a house full of flat girls was a difficult proposition. "No...  that pinches there." She said.

            "What's pinching - the bra?"

            "No... " she pointed to her crotch.

            "Outside or inside?"

            "Inside...  I just had to adjust it a bit."

            "You shouldn't feel it at all."

            "I think it was the tube."

            Lanara's jaw fell. "The...  THE WHOLE TUBE?!!!"

            She-Richard then held up the small pink tampax tube. "Gotcha."

            Lanara laughed. "You twit."

            "Twit-ette now, luv." She corrected, smiling brilliantly at having elicited a smile from Lanara. She felt like wrapping her arms around her, but hesitated. "What's wrong?"

            "I've just never hugged another girl before." Lanara replied, finally hugging her. Sister joined the hug. "So what do I call you now?"

            "Call me...  Gwendolyn."

            "Okay...  Gwen... " Lanara smiled.

            Demona awoke in the hallway, rubbing her head.  She moved to her feet and headed back to the control room, passing the unconscious, dead and dying guards.  She bolted through the main door and stopped. The dark intruder was waiting for her.  "Hello, Demona.  I came as soon as I heard of your failure."

            "He came with reinforcements.  I... "

            The figure raised a hand and Demona was suddenly wracked with a bolt of searing pain.  She dropped to one knee and gasped.  "You are a true gargoyle, one of the Chosen.  Your purpose for existing is to protect others, yet you could not even defend your own home from a genetically-unstable mutant and a human.  A HUMAN."  Demona's pain intensified and she roared in pain.  "Suffer in silence," she intoned and Demona's voicebox locked up.  "I'm not done, slave, be so kind as not to interrupt.  You may be powerful, but you are not my superior.  I am yours.  I give you a task I believed to be within your capabilities, and you failed me.  I expected better."

            Demona fell to both knees, her strength drained, her every nerve on fire.  Her hands went to her head, forcing her eyes up to the sorceress.  Her face was calm, but the computer screens turned red...  and began to bleed.  "However, I never expected you to be perfect.  You underestimated your quarry because you believed them to be greatly inferior to yourself.  They are unworthy, yes, but they are not without strength and intelligence.  And, it seems, a certain flair for the dramatic."  The figure smoothed out her gown and sat down as Demona slipped to her side, her mouth open in a silent scream.  "You will remember this, Demona, because our task is not complete.  There is much to do, Demona, and if you want a place in the New World, you're going to have to learn that these creatures are unworthy, but they are also powerful.  You must not make this mistake again."

            The pain abated and Demona felt her senses return to normal, afterimages of light in her eyes, a dwindling roar in her ears.  She got to her feet, shooting daggers at her mistress with her eyes.  "I am worthy."

            "Then prove it.  Do not disappoint me again."  The shadowy woman looked around the room.  "Next time, use the powers that you were born with and the lessons about humanity you learned from your dealings with them throughout history."  She stood up once again.  "There is much to do, and your incompetence has set back my timetable.  Collect your resources and return to your haven.  I will contact you later."  She walked out of the room, still as calm as ever, but everything her shadow touched warped into strange shapes.  Stone cracked and twisted, wood rotted, metal glistened and shimmered as it melted.

            One thing's certain...  one can always tell when the woman gets angry, despite her cool façade. Demona rubbed her icy skin, trying to rub the pins and needles from her muscles. I accept your authority for now, fey witch.  But do not disappoint me, sorceress. Maintain your purity of purpose as I do mine and I'll serve you.  But if you betray our alliance or our vision, and I will destroy you, no matter how powerful you think you are.

            The Sorceress's voice sounded in her mind.  **Should I betray our vision, noble Demona, I will surrender myself to your claws.**

            Demona cursed silently.  "How long have you been in my mind?"

**            We are of one mind, you and I.  It was easy.  Now, to your tasks and I to mine.**

            Demona nodded.  Despite the pain, she smiled.  Demona was beginning to appreciate the woman's style, and despite her punishment, she respected her use of control. "What do I call you?"

**            The name you may call me is Madame Gladstone.**


	7. The Demon Within

Heirs to a Prophesy

**_Heirs to a Prophesy_**

By Tigris Euphrates, A Fan, and Cmage

Chapter Seven: The Demon Within April 2, 2004 

Lanara's depression seemed to deepen over the next few weeks. To make her situation worse, Richard's new found womanhood as "Gwen" resulted in Lanara spending more time either working at the job Abram had given her - as a barista at "The Last Mug", or talking to Jeffrey Warman.

"What's bothering you lately, Lanara?" Jeffrey Warman inquired.

"Oh... it's just... I'm missing my mother today."

"It's perfectly natural for you to miss your mother." Jeffrey smiled. "Young people usually don't leave home until they're at least eighteen."

Lanara sighed miserably. "I just wish..."

Jeffrey nodded. "Go on."

"I just wish that there was some way for me to forget I ever used to be human. Forget everything... especially the pain." Lanara replied, growling.

Jeffrey took a drink of his coke and regarded Lanara carefully. "Is that what you really want?"

"Well, yes! Then I could concentrate on my life now, live a happy and meaningful existence here, and not have to worry about everything that... happened."

Jeffrey took a deep breath. "You know, there is a way. I've been learning some of Benjamin's tricks for doing hypnosis. I can't guarantee perfection, but I can at least try."

"I want to try it." Lanara replied firmly.

Jeffrey withdrew a small ring on a chain from his bag and began to swing it before her. "Relax, and do as I tell you. Watch the ring with your eyes. Take a deep breath... in and out... in and out... imagine that with each breath you take, stress and tension are leaving your body. You are becoming very relaxed. Take a few more deep breaths... in and out... in and out..."

April 13, 2004 

Lanara was busy blending Expressos and Lattes behind the bar at "The Last Mug" when Gwen strode into the shop. Jeffrey Warman looked up at her over his coke. Gwen marched directly up to Jeffrey, put her paws on the table, and began snarling at Jeffrey. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO LANARA?!!!"

Lanara's ears perked at the mention of her name. "Do to me? He didn't do anything to me."

Jeffrey looked at Gwen impassively. "What makes you think I did something?"

"Why does she suddenly think she's been a gargoyle all her life?" Gwen pressed.

Lanara's eyebrows narrowed. "That's because I AM a gargoyle, Gwen. Hatched and raised that way."

Gwen regarded the two with a mixed expression of hostility and curiosity. Lanara positioned herself between Gwen and Jeffrey. "WAS she a gargoyle all her life?" Gwen inquired of Jeffrey.

"As long as I'VE known her."

Gwen looked crestfallen, and turned toward the door to leave. "Then you lied to me, Lanara. You're not the Lanara I knew - someone stole her from me."

Gasping in protest, Lanara blocked Gwen's path to the door. "WHAT?!!! Richard... STOP! I am Lanara!" she protested. "Who else should I be? What's wrong with you?"

"The Lanara I knew was like me, someone human, changed into a gargoyle by the same people who changed me."

Jeffrey laced his fingers together. "You have nothing between you without that, Gwen? Your relationship is based on a mutual situation?"

Gwen turned to Lanara. "Why did you lie to me?"

Lanara shook her head in disbelief, her voice breaking with desperation. "I would NEVER lie to you, my love! I have never BEEN human! I've never told you any differently!" Gwen could not have been hit harder by those words that by a cross-town bus. "Gwen, I love you! You know how much I value honesty!" Lanara was on the verge of tears now.

In frustration, Gwen clapped her paws over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to believe what was happening. She turned to Jeffrey with a snarl. "What have you DONE?"

"Why do you keep blaming me? You know I could never hurt her." Jeffrey's voice rose a little.

"Hurt her? The Lanara I knew would never lie like this! You've ALREADY hurt her!" Gwen protested.

Lanara's jaw fell. They were talking about her as though she weren't even there! "What... have you all gone CRAZY?"

"I have a gift for knowing when someone knows they are lying, and everyone here thinks they are telling the truth as they saw it. Besides, I never saw YOU as a human." Jeffrey observed.

"The truth as they saw it? That's pretty far from the truth! How could she have been born twice?"

"Alternate universes, perhaps?" Jeffrey suggested, idly.

"Now you're playing word games! How can two different origins be considered truth? They're like black and white!"

"If you love each other, then you SHOULD be able to work past this."

"Past WHAT? You have YET to explain how this happened to her!"

"Why do you keep assuming I know?"

"Because you are the ONLY one who is hinting at SENSE!"

Lanara looked back and forth at her two fighting friends, and it simply became too much for her. She scampered out of the restaurant, scaled the building, and dived into the atmosphere. Gwen spun around and saw Lanara leave, but turned back, grabbed Jeffrey's collar, and pushed him back against the wall. "Come on. We've got to bring her back."

Jeffrey was uncertain at first - afraid of heights. He swallowed his fear however, and grabbed onto Gwen as she rushed up the side of the building after Lanara. When Lanara realized she was being chased, she knew she had the advantage and began dancing in and out of the maze of skyscrapers. She cut sharp corners and doubled back on them a couple times. Gwen, however, was persistent.

"Wait, Lacy!!!" Jeffrey shouted, trying to get her to slow down. He hoped that the use of her old name might trigger her memories, and slow her down.

Something in Lanara snapped. "L... Lacy...?" the gargoyle girl asked aloud, paused in mid-air, and suddenly began to plummet.

"LANARA!!!" Gwen and Jeffrey both screamed. Gwen dived after the girl as Lanara crashed down into a railway yard. Looking up, it was Lacy Myers who saw Gwen and Jeffrey chasing her.Lacy took off down the railroad tunnel, eyes wide with abject terror. Gwen dropped off her passenger, and they began to follow the other into the tunnel on foot. "Oh God..." Gwen muttered.

"Lacy, stop!" Jeffrey tried again. "Please, come back!"

At the sound of her name, Lacy stopped running and melted into the darkness, in a utility recess in the subway wall. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!" she warned, looking down the tunnel at them like a deer in front of headlights.

"No one is going to hurt you." Gwen reassured her.

"WHO ARE YOU?"

"I'm Jeffrey. Your friend." Jeffrey added, following closely behind Gwen, who was following the sound of Lanara's voice.

"H... How did I get here?" Lacy asked.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Jeffrey asked.

"Getting talked to by some cops at work into going to this new job... oooooooh GOD!!! What's happened to me?!!!" she moaned.

Gwen tried. "Do you remember me?"

Lacy was shaking in her hiding place. "I don't know either of you."

"Listen very carefully." Jeffrey instructed. "You were attacked - that's when you were changed. You've been working at the coffee shop, and we became friends."

Gwen turned angrily toward Jeffrey. "You fool! Look at what your careless mind raping has done! You allowed this to happen!"

"I allowed it to happen? You pushed her - I warned you about it!" Jeffrey protested.

"You're the one who hypnotized her! You opened the door, you idiot - just because someone walked through it doesn't mean you're not responsible."

"Gwen, I think you should leave. I'll take care of this. You're scaring her."

"You've done just MARVELOUSLY so far, and I'm not going ANYWHERE." Gwen turned back to the tunnel, her voice tender now. "Come on, Lanara - talk to me."

However during the midst of their argument, Lacy took the advantage of the distraction to slip further down the tunnel unnoticed. When her two pursuers came to the maintenance recess where she had been curled, she was no longer there. "LACY!" Jeffrey shouts after her. "Please come back! What will convince you to stop running?"

Gwen paused, thinking. Lacy. The name was unfamiliar to her. "What's going on?" he inquired of Jeffrey.

"She's gone the other way, thanks to you. She's forgotten everything that happened after she was transformed." Jeffrey explained.

"I'M NOT GOING BACK TO MY AUNT!" Lacy protested.

"I promise you, I won't call any of your relatives unless you want me to. Gwen is also your friend."

"Gwen?" Lacy whispered to herself, the name striking a chord in her memory.

"Gwen is the other person here with me."

"Wh... Who are you Gwen?" Lacy asked.

"I'm..." Gwen turned to Jeffrey, in a bitter tone. "the one who's in love with you."

"Gwen." Jeffrey whispered to her. "I wouldn't give her more information than she can deal with."

"We met when I was turned into a gargoyle. You helped me down from a great height. You were trying to help me, when I was accidentally changed into a girl." Gwen explained.

"Lacy? Will you please come out - I promise we won't hurt you." Jeffrey added, again.

"What... what am I? What have they done to me? What did they DO to my body?!!! Why did you change me?" Lacy was in tears.

"No, we're you're friend - we didn't change you. I didn't even meet you until after it happened." Jeffrey explained.

"What am I?"

Jeffrey followed the sound of the voice. "A gargoyle."

"What's that?"

"You are. Gwen is. You have changed species."

Gwen had slipped into the shadows by this time, trying to slip up quietly on Lacy. "Changed species? You mean I'm not human anymore? I'm a monster!" Lacy wailed.

"No, you're not human anymore, but you're not a monster either - you're simply different. You're still the same person."

That was when Gwen's night-vision spotted the little gargoyle - hiding between the pylons that line the graffiti-covered sides of the very old tunnel. "Who did this to me?"

"A group of scientists... for their own evil intentions."

"Who else knows I've been deformed?"

"Your mother."

"MY MOTHER?!!!" Lacy exclaimed, crouching down into her hiding place.

"She accepted it, and returned to L.A." Jeffrey lied.

"She... accepted it?" Lacy asked with disbelief plain in her voice

"It wasn't easy."

Not believing a word of it, Lacy bolted from her hiding spot and continued racing down the tracks in the darkness. Gwen and Jeffrey heard the sounds of her footprints, and began moving towards them.

Jeffrey turned to Gwen. "Haven't you done enough?"

Gwen looked back at him, steel in her voice. "That's MY line, Jeffrey."

"Is it? You may be in love with Lanara, Richard - but you certainly aren't her friend."

A light appeared, at the far end of the tunnel, and the rails began to make a barely audible ringing sound. Gwen's ears heard the sound of the train coming before Jeffrey did. Then there was one more sound - a fumbling sound very close to Gwen and Jeffrey. Gwen turned to one side, inspecting a maintenance recess in the wall and discovered Lacy passed out from freight. Gwen picked up the gargoyle girl, and turned to Jeffrey. "Jeffrey, I've got news for you. I'd love to stay here and tell you what I think of you, but I've got to catch a train."

"It's always excuses with you, isn't it? We'll settle this one of these days!" Jeffrey vowed.

The train came racing at them at easily fifty miles an hour. In the limited light of the subway, the conductor never made out the figures in the maintenance recess, and never saw Gwen reach out one claw and grab onto the metal surface. Gwen had to use all her gargoyle strength to keep her arm from being torn from its socket. She held on for dear life, holding a wing around Lanara to protect her from the wind and the tunnel's hazards as they went along.

Jeffrey realized that he was now alone in the subway tunnel. He sighed, and began to long trudge back to the nearest subway platform. "I hope Gwen realizes she doesn't know her."

Gwen carried Lanara to a chapel near the first station they sped past. She carried Lanara up toward the front of the hall. The building was dark, but Gwen lit some of the candles that had been left out. She gently laid Lanara on one of the pews, knelt next to her, bowing her head and closing her eyes for a time. After a while, Lanara opened her eyes gently, and reached out to touch Lanara's cheek. Though Gwen was female for the moment, she could still feel the love she felt for Lanara just as strongly as ever.

Lanara gently stirred at Gwen's touch, looked into her eyes for several long seconds, then reached up and touched Gwen's paw. "R... Richard?"

"Yes... Lanara, it's me." Lanara was silent for another long moment. "Do you remember me?" Gwen pressed, hoping to God that she would.

"No... but I feel like I should..."

"It's okay, Lanara... it's a start. I want you to know something. No matter what happens, we'll get through this... together. I need you."

There was a sound from the back of the chapel. Gwen looked up to see that Jeffrey had just entered the chapel as well. "I'm sorry to say you haven't gotten rid of me yet." He said. "I'm really close to being mad at you."

Lanara picked herself up, looking at Jeffrey and Gwen. Gwen stood, facing him. "You? Mad at me?"

Jeffrey came up and stood by the pew where Lanara sat upright looking back and forth at them with confusion. He sighed. "I supposed you don't remember anything about me... Oh well. World; one million, Jeffrey; zero."

Gwen looked critically at Jeffrey. "How can you even THINK about self-pity right now? Lanara's mind is what was messed with - big time - and all you can think about is yourself?"

"Gwen... Richard. It is quite clear to me that you don't want me around. She doesn't remember me anymore. I'm just not up to arguing with you, because you'll just run away again. What else is left?"

"Do you really want to be her friend? How important is the truth to you?"

"Do you really want me to argue about the truth? The truth made her unhappy. You kept pushing at it, and look at her now. If you want a place to put blame - put it on yourself for trying to push YOUR values on other people."

Gwen looked up at the dais, at the cross, and sighed. "You know Jeffrey, kneeling here gave me time to think, and it suddenly came to me. In fact I'm amazed I didn't see it before. I remember you talking about Benjamin, and I always wondered why his name had come up... then it dawned on me. You hypnotized Lanara - you were forcing YOUR values on HER! You hypocrite."

"I'm the hypocrite? I did what she asked."

"Yes, but you failed to realize that what she wanted wasn't what she needed. Not to mention the fact that you neglected to tell me what was going on when you knew perfectly well what happened to her. You were reckless and irresponsible."

"How do you know what she needs, Richard? I did it for her - everything I did was for HER happiness!" Jeffrey protested.

"Because I love her." Gwen replied calmly. "I'm going through the same things she is. I can see it, deep inside myself. You lied, manipulated, and forced another to accept lies. You did this for you - you even admitted that you did it, just now."

"When she is back to normal, ask her that and see if she doesn't agree with me." Jeffrey pointed out.

"I will. Undo what you did to her. Now." Gwen commanded him, turning to Lanara and holding a hand out to her to help her stand.

Lanara backed away from the offered hand, and suddenly ran from the chapel. "LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" she wailed to herself - not to the others.

Gwen was about to chase after her, but Jeffrey put out a hand to stop her. "Her mind is fighting what you did to it."

"Do you want to bitch, Jeffrey? Or do you want to help?" Gwen pressed him. "Choose now. Lanara's life depends on your decision."

"BE QUIET!" Lanara fell down onto the street, and began twitching in a catatonic manner.

Gwen pushed her way past Jeffrey and picked up the girl - carrying her to a nearby apartment building, quickly rendering the lock useless, and taking Lanara inside. Jeffrey followed.

Gwen looked up as Jeffrey entered. "Whatever you did to her, undo it - PLEASE." She pleaded with him.

Jeffrey sighed. Lanara began howling like someone possessed. Jeffrey looked into Lanara's eyes and snapped his fingers. Lanara suddenly was silent, collapsing into a heap in Gwen's arms - limp as a doll. "Now I want you to remember everything I told you to forget - your entire life, what you were and what you are now. I want you to wake up... now."

Lanara was still for several moments before she slowly opened her eyes. Small tears fell from the corners of her eyes as she began to softly weep again. "I wanted to forget..." she bawled quietly.

"Lanara? Can you hear me?" Gwen asked. She nodded. "Were you hatched as a gargoyle?"

"I was born Lacy Myers and changed about a month ago. I wish I were born a gargoyle, though. I remember you two guys fighting - I was... REALLY angry with you. You were both talking about me like I wasn't there."

"She's back." Gwen smiled, relieved. "I'm sorry... I lost my temper. You can't just erase the past, Lanara - you're got to heal the wounds caused by the past."

Lanara abruptly sat up and looked at Gwen in a stern and angry manner. "YOU don't know what happened to me - NEITHER of you! You can't heal wounds like these! No one can!"

Gwen sighed. "I believe that God has a plan for all of us - human and gargoyle alike. For now, just believe that no matter what happened, whatever faces you, I'll be right here beside you. I won't leave you. I won't abandon you. I promise, Lanara."

Lanara stood, folding her wings around herself. Gently, she reached up to Gwen and took Gwen into her arms.


	8. The Shattering

Heirs to a Prophesy

**_Heirs to a Prophesy_**

By Tigris Euphrates, A Fan, and Cmage

Chapter Eight: The Shattering May 16, 2004 

Jeffrey collapsed into a chair and was about to press the button on the answering machine and listen to the message when, to his surprise, the phone began to ring. Frowning, he answered it. "Hello?"

"Hi, Jeffrey? This is Lanara."

"Hi, Lanara," Jeffrey said. "How have you been? I'm sorry I've been so busy lately."

"It's okay...I understand, new job and all...Mind if I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"Can we do dinner or something? I can dress up like a human again if you want."

Jeffrey paused, wondering what was up. "Why do you think I'd want you to dress up? Unless we are going to someplace that wouldn't let you in otherwise?"

"Like an Italian restaurant?"

"I think I know one not far from you," he said, pulling open a playbill from show he'd seen and turning to the advertisements.

"Want me to dress up?"

"As a human? Or just formally?"

"Either one."

Another pause. "Well, what do you want?"

"I was just hoping we could do it soon. I don't care how. "

Jeffrey exhaled sharply as his suspicions were confirmed. "Is there something wrong?

"No, I just need some...male company. We just might get harassed if I go eau naturale."

"Oh," Jeffrey said... "But I meant about the formally. If you have to disguise yourself, do you want to dress up, or not? Because I'd be embarrassed if I didn't match "

"Well, I was thinking about dressing up as human to minimize the harassment."

"Okay... Well, I haven't had dinner yet tonight. I could be over in an hour in your neighborhood in less than an hour."

"WONDERFUL! "

"I'm still wearing my suit. I don't know why they want me to. No one sees me. It's a helpline."

"Professionalism."

"Probably. "

"I'll start getting dressed then. Human or gargoyle? "

"Lanara, whatever you feel comfortable with. You know that I'm not afraid of being seen with you. Do you want me to come to your place or meet you at a restaurant?"

"Could you meet me here?Why not go as a gargoyle then. That ought to tweak the locals."

"Okay. I'll be there in a few minutes. "

"Bye!" Lanara hung up the phone.

On the other end, Jeffrey did the same. Heading toward the bathroom, he made sure he looked presentable, and started out the door. After a quick trip on the subway, and a few blocks walk, he knocked on her door.

After a few moments, Lanara opened the door.

There stood Lanara, made up in a lovely royal blue chiffon dress with a full skirt, low neckline, and a fully exposed back, allowing her wings to slip through. Her face had a barely detectable trace of makeup on it, giving her luscious purple lips, cheeks, and the appearance of large, blue eyes. Her feet were mostly obscured under the dress, but her long tail slithered out the lower edge. She wore royal blue opera gloves over her paws, giving her hands a slightly human touch to them. The overall effect accented her dark blue skin against the royal blue of the dress. Her raven hair had been curled into ringlets - which was probably what she had spent the most of the last hour working on. Jeffrey paused for a second, looking at her in the dress, betraying a hint of attraction and arousal. "Evening, Lanara."

"Hi, Jeffrey. We ready?"

"Whenever you are."

Lanara didn't move, instead waiting for Jeffrey to offer his elbow. He looked at her for a few seconds, and then realized what she was waiting for, and offered his arm.

"Lanara... .?" He started... 

"Thank you." The gargoyle took his arm, holding the dress in the other. "Where are we headed?" She asked, unfolding her wings so he could see the restitching of the back of the dress.

Half grateful for the opportunity, he changed the subject off what he was going to ask. "Well, there is a place not that far that I've heard of. "

"Wonderful!"

Jeffrey started down the block, Lanara on his arm. "Lanara... " He started again, half-hoping she'd say something else again.

"Yes?"

He paused for a long moment. Lanara turned to him, waiting for the question. "I can't shake the feeling that something is ... well, off about you tonight. You've never called me before. Maybe I'm just being paranoid "

She sighed. "Well, I need to be distracted from some problems that I am currently powerless to solve."

"So, you don't want to talk about them, I guess?"

"I...screwed up on the whole thing with transforming Richard. I'm trying not to think about it."

Jeffrey didn't say anything. He was curious what it was, and wanted to help, but he couldn't ask if she didn't want to tell. "How can I distract you then?"

"Help me have a good time."

"I can try. "

"There's nothing else I can do about it right now, and staying home is only making things worse "

"If you keep saying things like that, you are going to make me worry."

"I've just...learned a lesson is all."

Jeffrey tried to put the worry out of his mind, or at least in the background. "Well, what else, other than dinner, can I do?"

"Wanna see a movie? I haven't gone to a movie in months. I wanna see the newest 'X-men' movie - it sounds like fun."

Jeffrey paused. He had to ask one question. "Lanara, this sounds a lot like a date. Won't Gwen be jealous? "

Lanara made a scoffing noise. "No. Trust me, right now Gwen has much BIGGER problems on her mind." Lanara did not need to say what she was hinting to - Jeffrey and she both knew how well endowed Gwen had become.

"I just don't want to get in the middle of your relationship."

"It's...on hold right now. Besides, she has nothing against my dating other people. Can I ask you something?"

"On hold? You know you can."

"Tell me more about Amy Klein."

"Amy? What about her? She's Benjamin's little cousin."

"What happened to her?"

"Benjamin left an odd message on my machine. He asked if I'd seen her. I was going to call back, but then you called. She probably ran off to the Last Mug again. I saw her there without him a few times."

"Alright...I mean before. With Kanthara."

"With Kanthara? You mean when she was kidnapped?"

"I don't know. Tell me what happened."

"Well, Kanthara and Amy became friends, through Benjamin, although he didn't like it. And someone saw them together, and took Amy to try and get Kanthara to give herself up. I was there when they delivered the ransom note to Benjamin."

"And?"

"Kanthara and Benjamin worked together, even though they hate each other, to get her back. "

"And?"

"They got her back."

"There's something you're not telling me "

"I'm not sure what you want to know. I only know what I say, and what Benjamin told me. Why don't you ask Amy? The last time I saw her, you were in the Last Mug working. That was a few weeks ago, though."

"Yes, if I see her again, I will."

They walked in silence for a few moments. Finally, Jeffrey spoke up. "A gargoyle like you shouldn't be unhappy, Lanara."

"I'm not unhappy, I'm just learning."

"You just seem down. I'm afraid I'm not doing a very good job cheering you up. "

"You're right. Let's enjoy our night from here on out."

"If you think of anything I can do to make it more enjoyable, don't hesitate to say so." They stopped. "Well, here we are. Ready to go in?"

Lanara nodded. "Ready. Let's tweak the nightlife."

He clutched her arm tighter and opened the door with his other arm and held open the door with his other hand. Lanara took in the restaurant and looked around with a smile. A waiter came over, stopped, and stared at Lanara. "Table for two, please," Jeffrey said.

Lanara smiled prettily. Her smile, especially the fangs, seemed to alarm him more. "Ummmm..." The waiter said to her.

"Problem?" She asked back.

"Did I forget to ask for non-smoking?" Jeffrey said, trying to avoid a scene.

He blinked. "Yes, sir. Nonsmoking."

"Umm... Are you all right?"

"Fine, sir. Fine." The waiter left. Lanara could see him out of the corner of her eye, arguing with another man.

Jeffrey sat across from Lanara, looking at her. She grinned back at him. 

His eyes glazed over, as he continued to stare. "What's the matter?" She asked, her grin fading.

His eyes refocused. "Oh, nothing. I was just... elsewhere for a second. I'll try to stay here."

"Where?" Lanara smiled.

The waiter returned, placing glasses before them, and menus. "Wine?"

"Somewhere I'm better off not going... " He changed the subject. "No wine. Lanara, you don't drink anymore, right?"

"No, I'll have juice or something."

"I'll stick with water myself."

The waiter nodded. "Would the Gentlemen and the...Gargess like to start with an appetizer?"

Lanara laughed a little to Jeffrey. "Gargess...I LIKE that."

"I always liked mozzarella sticks."

"I'll pass, waiter. May I get the Spaghetti Carbonara?"

"And I'll take the Eggplant Parmigiana."

The man looked at Lanara nervously once more. "I'll be back with your mozzarella sticks shortly," he said to Jeffrey.

The gargess whispered to Jeffrey. "I think he's scared of me."

"Maybe he gets nervous around pretty gargoyles?"

She blushed. "Thank you, Jeffrey."

He smiled back. "You're welcome."

Meanwhile, other patrons glanced anxiously in their direction, asking the other waiters things and waving in her direction.

"This is the first time I've seen you all dressed up." Jeffery noted.

"You like the dress? It took some...modification."

"It isn't something I'd wear, but it looks nice on you."

She laughed again. "I'd be frightened if you did!"

There was more commotion among other diners as they found out that the manager tolerated her presence.

"But I might not be the best person for an objective opinion. I am biased. " Jeffrey continued.

She smiled."True. Amazing how you sure can make a girl feel good."

"Am I making you feel good?"

"Yes." She said, ignoring the other patrons.

"Then I'm glad."

Lanara folded her wings around her shoulders as the waiter arrived with a plate of mozzarella sticks. Taking a stick, he took a small bite. "Want one?"

"Sure."She nibbled on one. "Mmmm...it's been a while. A month and a half of bad TV dinners, and years of street food before that, this is good stuff!"

"You should let me cook for you sometime."

"I'd love that!" she replied, louder.

"I like to cook...I used to cook for my parents. Not as much lately."

"My mother and father were teaching me when I was younger." Lanara noted, quieter now.

"Well, we could cook together. I could teach you a few things."

"I didn't get much chance to learn anything. I'd sure appreciate that! No more TV dinners."

"None tonight."

She smiled, giggling a little at the stringiness of the cheese.

"You have to take big bites, or else this happens." He took another stick, took a small bite, and stretched the cheese inside pulling it away from his mouth a string of cheese connecting the two, swallowing the cheese till the end of the stick. "See, that works better."

Lanara smiled, popping the whole thing in her mouth in a fairly unladylike manner. "I guess I never was taught to be the perfect lady."

"It depends on whose definition of perfect. you go by. Maybe not Emily Post's, but nowadays, who lives up to that?"

"Besides, who should make up the perfect miss manners for Gargoyles?" Lanara asked.

"I don't know, actually." She laughed a little to herself. "But you are close enough."

She blushed furiously. "Thank you," she replied as the waiter brought the food over and set it in front of the two. Jeffrey sipped his water as she smiled, savoring the scent. "Wow."

"You definitely have to go out more often."

She slipped her fork in. "I hope so!"

"Well, why don't you?" While he waited for the answer, he started digging into his eggplant.

"Lack of decent company."

"You have a lot of friends... "

"That would take me to dinner?"

"You asked me."

"True, but I needed the male company." Lanara admitted.

"Male company?" He frowned. "Why would you need male company, specifically? And why can't Gwen do?"

Lanara became nervous. "Gwen is not male right now. Although I'm sure Amy would love to be in my place," she said with a gleam.

"Amy?" Jeffrey asked, confused about the sudden mention of Benjamin's eleven year old little cousin. "What does Amy have to do with this? This is the second time you mentioned her."

"She and I talked recently, is all. I'm thinking about her."

"Why would she love to be in your place? She wants to be a gargoyle?"

"She wants to be my age - the persecution complex thing."

"I know. She talks about it all the time. She thinks everyone tells her what to do."

"She also has...another reason than just that."

"What?"

"You." Lanara said, taking a bite of her food.

Jeffrey started coughing as the water he swallowed went down the wrong tube. "What... " He gasped.

"She likes you."

He took a deep breath, surprised by the news. He'd never even considered that Amy... little Amy, had a crush on him. Why would anyone have a crush on him? "In the way I think you are talking about?"

"Yes. She envies me very much in that regard."

"Why? You and I aren't involved in that way."

"She thinks we should be. She...doesn't understand about me and Gwen."

"I never quite understood either." Jeffrey's tone was a little tense.

"Well...I guess there is one tired old cliché that describes it best. Love at first flight." She ate another forkful. "I love Richard in a passionate, romantic way." She stirred the rest around her plate thoughtfully, remembering.

"Then why did she go away?" He asked, thinking that Gwen's unavailability was because she'd left.

"She didn't go away, she's just busy with another problem at the moment. Jeffrey, I love you in the wonderful way of two friendly intellectuals, and otherwise would-be lovers...if it weren't for the species difference. Let's face it...there's biology involved in romance. At least in my case there is. What can I say? I'm attracted to Richard physically. I hope that doesn't hurt you."

"I can understand you being in love with Gwen and not with me, but I can't understand that explanation."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't understand why you love her, probably because I don't get along with her...but I can comprehend it. I can't understand why the species difference matters."

"Gargoyle sexuality, Jeffrey. Speaking purely physically, I am aroused by male gargoyles, not humans. There may be no spiritual or intellectual difference between them, but in some things the body rules the mind."

"Are you saying you aren't attracted to me because I'm human or because I'm me? What about Abram?"

"I AM attracted to you for being you, just not for being human. He's a lot older than me."

"No, that's not what I mean. Do you know who his parents are?"

"No, I don't. I'm just...not attracted to Abram. I'm attracted to Goliath though. And Brooklyn."

"Abram's father is human, his mother was a gargoyle."

She laughed. "So that's why Robbie calls him Hybrid so much... "

"You see the point I'm making. It isn't a species thing. It is a YOU thing."

"I think it is. Abram is still part human. I'm not attracted to that. He's more of a mentor to me."

"I'm saying you have something to do with what you are attracted to, not your species. I guess it's...an egg-laying thing. You have to understand...ALL human men do NOTHING for me anymore." She stirred the stuff on her plate once more, and started munching on the parsley.

"Can we change the subject, please? I don't think we'll settle that."

Lanara nodded. "Enough Human/Gargoyle sexuality? Did you want to see a movie?"

"Yes. Maybe a comedy. This depressed me a little. Sometimes I wonder... " He sighed. "Never mind."

"I didn't mean to depress you, I wanted this to be happy!"

"It's just that, sometimes I wonder if there is someone for me out there."

"I know there is."

"How do you know?"

"Just a feeling. I trust my instincts."

"Okay. I'll try to be happy, though, from now on."

"Try hard enough it'll stick. Trust me, that philosophy got me through a decade on the streets." The gargoyle girl sighed, finishing her plate. "I sure have a bigger appetite than I used to."

"There is more of you to feed."

Jeffrey's comment made her smile once more. "You have a point. I hear wing muscles require a lot of energy to replenish."

"Gives the phrase 'Growing Girl' a new meaning, doesn't it? " He laughed softly.

"I wonder if this is like a shelter, and you can go up and ask for seconds... "

"You can order another meal." Jeffrey pointed out.

"How about dessert?"

"What do you want?"

Lanara looked up for a waiter. "What do they have... ?" She glimpsed a lot of the other patrons staring and idly contemplated making faces at them.

"Don't worry about them. They just don't know many gargoyles."

"Maybe that will change, with time. Can we ask for a waiter or something?"

"I hope so. As sure as you are about me, I'm sure that things will change. Yes, we can.." He motioned for the waiter.

"Yes, sir?"

"Can I order dessert or something?" Lanara asked him.

"We'd like some dessert." Jeffrey said.

The waiter produced another set of menus. "I'll return in a minute."

Lanara thumbed through it. "I haven't even HEARD of a lot of these!"

"Do you want a to share or get two different things?

"Sure. Something with chocolate?"

"What else? We both are addicted to it."

"Ice cream? Cake?" Jeffrey prodded.

"Do they have something with both?"

"They can put it on. How about this? Death By Chocolate."

She pointed to a listing for a chocolate torte. "What's that?"

"I'M not sure what a torte is." He started reading the description for Death By Chocolate. "Chocolate ice cream on achocolate cake... "

"Let's have the Death By Chocolate since you suggested it." They looked up for the waiter.

"If you don't want it, we can have something else."

"Oh, I'm up to try anything! I'm enjoying myself, Jeffrey!" She smiled at him again.

"I'm enjoying myself too."

Lanara leaned over the table and gave him a hug. His ears turned red as she held up a paw for the waiter. Jeffrey took a deep breath to calm himself. 

"Did I hug you too hard?" Lanara asked, concerned.

"No. Why would you think you did?"

"You stiffened a little."

"You didn't hug me too hard."

"Yes? " The waiter said, arriving at that moment.

"Death by Chocolate please?"

"Coming up." The waiter said, taking the menus and giving Lanara a nasty look.

"I don't think he likes me." Lanara watched the waited cautiously.

"Are you going to let it bother you?"

"No, not really." With an evil gleam in her eye, she pointed at the waiter. "Chair." The waiter suddenly back into a chair exactly like the others that hadn't been there a moment before as Lanara giggled to herself.

"I didn't know you could make furniture."

"Anything, in theory, so long as I can provide enough mental energy and concentration to back it up, and know what it's made of. Otherwise it's just a matter of focusing my desire for something into form."

"Oh. I just wouldn't have tipped him."

"He'll get tipped. Not until the end, though."

"You just made him back into a chair! Yet you are going to give him the full 15%?"

"He doesn't know I made him back into a chair." Lanara observed.

"Oh, so you are tipping him to make up for it?"

"I'm tipping him because it's rude not to. If he gives me any more stony looks, I might change my mind." The waiter showed up with the dessert at that point.

"It looks good."

She nodded. "Mm-hmmm." The waiter chose that moment to step on her tail.

"YEEEOOOOOOOOOWWCH!" Lanara screamed, attracting the attention of the entire place. Rubbing her tail in her paws, she winced and looked at the waiter, waiting for him to apologize.

"Sorry, Ma'am... " The waiter said, indifferently.

Lanara replied in a small voice..."s'kay, waiter... "

"Lanara, do you need some ice?"

"May I?"

Jeffrey looked at the waiter. "Can you bring a bag of ice for the lady?"

"Please?" Lanara pleaded.

He nodded. "Yessir, right away."

They started on the dessert for a moment, with Lanara laying the end of her tail in her lap. A few moments later, the waiter brought one of those refreezable icepacks used in first aid kits.

"Thank you."

"Does it hurt a lot? I'm not sure how sensitive tails are."

She set the icepack on the floor under the table, and lays her tail across it, giving the waiter a dark look. "It startled me more than anything. My tail IS sensitive, but not as much as my feelings are. It was pretty HARD too. Either he was pushing hard, or he weighs a lot more than he looks."

"Do you think he did it on purpose?"

"Sure felt like it."

"If I were a violent person... "

"Don't think that way. He just lost his tip." She took another bite. "That's all."

"I don't. I just think that you deserve better than for me to keep silent. And not at least say something."

"You want to talk to his manager?" Lanara suggested.

"Maybe I should."

"I'm not sure it would help though."

"No, that is seldom the cure for bigotry."

She sighed, working on her part of the dessert. "Do you like it?"

"Bigotry? No. The dessert? Yes," he said, slowly working on eating the opposite side of the dessert from her.

Lanara watched the waiter from the corner of her eye, talking to some of the other waiters and gesturing in their direction.

"This reminds me of another dessert I had. I never finished it."

"Want some help?"

She poked at it with her fork, surprisingly still hungry.

"Have as much as you want."

Lanara dug in with earnest.

"Check please!" Jeffrey yelled.

The waiter eagerly brought the check over, as Jeffrey reached for his wallet. He counted out the amount, to the cent, and put it on the table. 

"Almost ready to go?"

"Almost... "

Another man, in a suit, with a name tag pinned to the breast pocket, came over. "I'm the manager. May I have a word?"

"Yes?" Jeffrey looked up.

"Sir, we have a policy that we do have the right to refuse service to anyone. I didn't ask you to leave when you arrived because I hoped you would not make a scene. Sir, you are welcome to come back, but please do not bring your...pet next time."

Lanara's eyes narrowed to slits and glowed a little as she snarled at him, which didn't help her case any. Jeffrey stood up. "What scene did my FRIEND and I make?"

"That incident with the waiter, sir," he said, ignoring Lanara, as though she wasn't even there.

"You mean when the waiter stepped on her tail?"

"That IS what I mean, sir."

"He stepped on MY tail, and now you're throwing me out?" Lanara quipped, bitterly.

"And if I stepped on a sensitive part of your body and you screamed out in pain, would you be expected to leave?" Jeffrey asked the manager.

"I know what started it. It did." The manager said, referring to Lanara.

"It is your restaurant. We can't prevent you from kicking us out, but you can't prevent me from filing a complaint."

"Go ahead." the manager replied.

"I think it's time we left, Jeffrey."

"I agree."

She picked up the ice bag, and tossed it at the Manager, who caught it. Then she stood, unfolding her wings, to the surprise of the patrons. The manager folded his arms, waiting for them to leave. Jeffrey, wanting to do more, but not sure what, offered his elbow once more.

Lanara took it. "How about that new Jim Carrey movie?" She said, remembering his comedy comment.

"Okay. Let's find a theater."

They walked out of the restaurant, turning a corner. "OWWWWWWW!" Lanara shouted as something hit her on the back, and dropped to the ground.Lanara turned and looked, a brick was lying there.

Jeffrey looked up the alleyway where several men were standing, picking up bricks and tossing them. Lanara spread her wings and picked up Jeffrey. He quickly looped his arms around her neck. Climbing up a wall with one paw, and holding her dress up with the other, Lanara scaled the wall. "DAMMIT!"

Jeffrey sighed, thinking that they were out of danger. "It happens, Lanara. Change doesn't happen overnight. It makes me mad too. What can we do, have you beat them up?"

She lifted them both up onto the roof of an adjacent building. Multiple gunshots sounded, and Lanara shouted, pushing Jeffrey to the rooftop floor. "SHIT!"

"We've given them time to gather reinforcements!" Jeffrey pointed out.

"Can't we just have one night?" Lanara wailed. "AAAAAAAAUUUUGH!!!!" She screamed again, a bullet punching a hole in one of her wings.

"Lanara!!!" Jeffrey shouted. Lanara crouched behind an air conditioner, safely hiding Jeffrey for the time being. From the cleavage of her gown, she withdrew the laser weapon that had been holstered under her arm.

"I didn't come completely unprepared for a fight." She groaned. "But I can't glide on this wing. If you know a magical way to fly, now would be the time."

Jeffrey turned pale. "I...I can't do it."

Lanara sighed. "Then we hold out." She brought the gun up, and peered around the corner to assess the situation. More gunfire was heard, and the sound of Lanara's laser opening up. The laser set off some small explosions, which died down quickly as the gunfire all stopped.

Another sound - a vibration. Lanara was back at Jeffrey's side in a moment as they watched a chopper go flying overhead. Lanara's weapon was out and waiting, but there was never any gunfire. Was it a friendly chopper? She wondered in confusion.

It took a few moments, but finally Lanara began to smell it. She sniffed the smell cautiously. "Smell that?" she whispered. They searched around in the dark for several moments until the two began to cough and wheeze.

Jeffrey and Lanara began to hear a hissing sound. That was when it occurred to Lanara that the chopper had dropped a gas canister as it flew overhead, and the sound of it hitting the roof had been drowned out by the noise of the chopper's rotors. Jeffrey had begun to slump, but a determined Lanara tried to drag him by his shoulders away from the gas, but soon passed out herself.

Lanara beat against the bars as hard as she could, screaming "LET ME OUT!!!" She was locked in a cage the size of a small room. She was weak as a human and not able to break through the bars, and her weapons and magical tokens were all missing. There were multiple bullet holes in her wings, making them look like purple and green Swiss cheese. Luckily, the membranous skin of her wing had only small capillaries and veins in it, so the bleeding was slowing. Lanara winced at the pain in her wings - for appendages she was not born with, they sure could hurt! Her gown was stained and ruffled, a little torn in places, but otherwise undamaged.

A man was standing in the cage just behind her. He was watching the gargoyle girl with an almost idle curiosity. "Here's the deal." he was saying. "Speak anymore, and we'll drug you, shoot holes in your wings - generally make your life miserable." he smiled, gesturing to a collection of tools, including a cattle prod, hot branding iron, a lion tamer's whip, and so on. "From now on you are an animal - is that understood? The best part is, you'll regenerate every day, and we'll be able to start all over again. You will act like an animal at all time, or you'll be beaten down like the little bitch you are."

Lanara snarled at him. "You're sick."

Lanara charged at him, but with two kicks she was on the floor. Why was she so weak? So slow and clumsy? So dizzy? Suddenly Lanara gave a loud blood-curdling scream as something hot seared into her back. Spinning, she found her captor had branded her, straight through the material of her dress, leaving a permanent "U" shaped scar.

"FIRST of all! Our show animals do not need to wear clothes." he said, pulling out a long machete.

Lanara back away shouting "NO!" in protest, but the man grabbed the neck of her dress and cut her blue chiffon gown off her body. A few hacks, and all that remained was her bra and panties.

Lanara gasped in shock, backing away, wrapping her bloodied wings around her body. Holding the blade to her throat, Lanara's captor began pull her wings back. "Please... " she begged, to little avail. Without mercy, her underwear was removed in a similar fashion.

Naked and humiliated, she cowered in the corner, crying, her wings wrapped around her again. "You are no longer a human being! You are an animal! You always will be! Do it or, you'll wish you were dead, GOT IT?"

Then the whip cracked. Lanara felt a burning sting on her shoulder, and winced. She turned her back on the whip as he flailed her again. She refused to give in. However, and he hit her harder, she began crying and screaming in pain. He hit her again and again until finally, blessedly, she passed out.

Somewhere, deep inside Lanara's unconscious mind, it was though Lanara was a mirror that had shattered. Three different people emerged, fighting for control, a large Lanara the size of a house battling a more normal sized Lanara. The large one knew nothing but anger and hunger, snarling and fighting the other like an animal. The second knew she was a gargoyle and had been born from an egg. The third huddled in a dark corner of Lanara's mind, frightened and guilty, none other than Lacy Myers who thought she was a human and always would be. Little Lacy watched in horror as the two stronger gargoyles fought for control of Lanara's consciousness.

With sunset, Lanara reawoke and her body - while still weak - was flushed with a refreshed energy. Her body was healed! The holes in her wings were closed, but red still. Some places were tender from the whipping, but they no longer ached.

Bits of raw meat had been laid out for her to eat. It certainly smelled good, though the idea might have turned her stomach before. She ate it down with a tenacity that would have shocked her friends.

The taskmaster reentered the cell. Lanara went down on all fours. She would NOT let herself be beaten again! Now she was whole, no longer a sluggish with pain. She would show this human who he was dealing with! She snarled at him.

The man smiled, taunting her. "Yes! Good!"

In that instant, Lanara ceased to be Lanara at all. She leapt for him like a panther leaping for a kill with claws extended. He dodged, but she leapt again, throwing him to the ground. He held her back. Why? Why?!!! She knew she was stronger than this! She slashed at his face, but he rolled out from under her, and unlocked the cage. Lanara sprang again. The man saved himself by locking the cage behind him.

She heard a hiss of air, and felt a stinging in her shoulder. She brushed off the dart, but her vision began to swirl. She didn't feel sleepy - how strange, she thought. She began to see people all around her, outside of the cage, they were all laughing at her and calling her by name. She was The Animal now! She threw herself against the bars, roaring at the hallucinations with her panther-voice. She saw things leaping at her to attack her, but when she attacked them, no one was there! She paced her cage, growling and snarling at the apparitions.

Later, sometime after midnight, Lanara reawaked from the strange haze. What had happened? She was whole, but she had not awakened from stone! It was the middle of the night! Why couldn't she remember awakening tonight?

Studying her cage, it looked like a wild animal had eaten several large animals in her cage, and her own claws were covered in bloodstains. Beyond the bars was a field filled with moonlight and trash. Custodians were picking up bits of popcorn and candy bar wrappers. Lanara couldn't riddle it out - where was she?!!!

Then she saw something. There was a sign near her cage, turned in just a way that she could read parts of it. The darkness covered it, but her night-eyes could pick the words out.

OHIO COUNTY FAIR 

Gargoyle Exhibit

CAUTION!

Do Not Feed Gargoyle

Do Not Tease Gargoyle

Do Not Throw Things at Gargoyle

Do Not Approach Cage

Ohio?

Lanara's jaw fell. She was in a carnival! SHE WAS A FREAKSHOW!!! Stunned, she sat down by the bars, trying to hold her faith that Gwen, Robbie, Jeffrey, and Abram would somehow find her.

Lacy awoke, asserting control. Where was she? Why was she here? Where were her clothes? What had happened to her? Why did she have wings? Why was she in this cage? Lacy peered at the sign outside her cage and read it. Why couldn't she remember how she got here, and how she came to have this body? Last she remembered was talking to her friend in Central Park, the murder, and running home to her apartment. How did she wind up in Ohio? What was happening to her? A sense of desperation filled her, and she slumped against the bars, staring at her strangely deformed body. The raging questions in her mind began to make her eyes well up, and she began crying with fear.

"Mommy!" came the voice of a little girl somewhere close by. The sound startled Lacy.

A young carnival attendee came running by her cage and pausing when she saw the teary eyed young gargoyle. The two were silent as they stared at each other for several long seconds. When the little girl began to reach out a hand to touch her, and Lacy extended a talon to her. For a moment the two girls touched, talon to finger.

"Ronda!" came the girl's mother's voice. The woman came running by the front of Lacy's cage, scooped up the child, casting a frightened look at Lacy, before running out of sight. "It's time for the carnival to close, honey... "

"But Momma!" the girl's voice drifted back. "The gargie was crying!"

Far in the background, a fat rolling man smiled to himself with satisfaction. 'Captain Jack' Mendoza loved his pet gargoyle - or more correctly all the money she made him. "Yes..." he told himself. "I should have listened to Madame Gladstone sooner - that freaky old bag sure knows how to deliver quality entertainment."


End file.
